Lithuania’s air traffic rebounds following Russian war

176
3
Lithuania’s air traffic rebounds following Russian war

The whole world was shocked by Russia's war against Ukraine in the beginning of the year, and the aviation sector is no exception. Lithuanian airports were able to redirect their flights to other markets because of this, as they did not experience any major fluctuations in passenger traffic as a result of this. When the war broke out, we acted quickly together with the airlines - routes to Ukraine were replaced with new destinations of similar distance, said Aurimas Stikli nas, head of aviation services at Lithuanian airports.

In the first three months of the year, Lithuanian airports welcomed 818,000 passengers. In the same period last year, 147,000 passengers were served.

The fastest recovery is said to be at Kaunas Airport. In the first three months of the year, 10.5 times more passengers travelled through this gateway than in the same period last year, which is 93% of the record level of the same period in 2019. This is due to the increase in the number of routes offered, especially to holiday destinations, and in March 2022, as many as 26 destinations were already available from Kaunas, which is a wider choice than was offered at the same time before the Pandemic.

The average aircraft occupation indicator for the months of February-March was above the level of the previous forecast. It was at an average of 60-70%, which is quite high in the context of the recent period. According to experts, the abolition of COVID 19 requirements in many European countries, as well as for those travelling to Lithuania, has resulted in an increase in passenger traffic at Lithuanian airports. The Lithuanians are not saving money on travel because of the first quarter of this year and the next forecasts. This is probably due to the fact that there is a rather prolonged abstention from flights due to the restrictions imposed by the Pandemic, as well as the desire to relieve emotional tension. Stikli nas says that there are concerns about inflation and possible price rises that encourage passengers to take advantage of the opportunity to travel at more attractive prices this summer.

In the first quarter of 2021, Lithuanian Airports handled around 4,000 flights, while the result is almost 2.5 times better this year - almost 10,000 flights were handled.

The total number of destinations offered has exceeded the number of destinations offered in the pre-pandemic period at the beginning of the year.

Lithuanian airports operated 85 destinations in the first quarter of 2022, compared to 52 at the same time last year and 81 at the beginning of 2019, which is considered a record year. We are pleased that existing airlines are offering new destinations at the airports, but the attraction of a new airline was very important - Swiss started regular flights at Vilnius Airport and launched direct flights between Vilnius and Zurich, recalls Stikli nas.

In the first quarter of 2022, Lithuanian airports were ahead of Riga RIX and Tallinn TLL in terms of passenger traffic. It is worth noting that Lithuanian airports have the largest market share of 40.3% in the Baltic market, RIX had 38.4% and TLL had 21.3% in Q 1 2022 In the first quarter of the year, the number of cargo handled at Lithuanian airports increased by 26%. Last year, more than 6,000 tons of cargo were transported through Lithuanian airports.