The entire world was shocked at the beginning of the year by Russia's war against Ukraine. The aviation sector is no exception. As a result of this, Lithuanian airports were able to successfully redirect their flights to other markets, as they did not experience any major fluctuations in passenger traffic. When the war broke out, we quickly acted together with the airlines -- the routes to Ukraine were replaced with new destinations of the same 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 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 a significant 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, and thus also for those travelling to Lithuania, has resulted in an increase in passenger traffic at Lithuanian airports. The first quarter of this year and the next forecasts show that Lithuanians are not saving money on holidays. This is probably due to a rather prolonged abstention from flights due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, as well as the desire to relieve emotional tension. Concerns about inflation and possible price rises are encouraging some passengers to take advantage of the opportunity to travel at more attractive prices this summer, according to Stikli nas.
In the first quarter of 2021, Lithuanian Airports handled about 4,000 flights, while this year the result is almost 2.5 times better - almost 10,000 flights were handled.
At the beginning of this year, the total number of destinations offered has already exceeded the number of destinations offered in the pre-pandemic period.
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 -- considered a record year. There is also the good news that existing airlines are offering new destinations at the airports, but the attraction of a new airline was also a very important achievement - 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. In the first quarter of the year, the number of cargoes handled at Lithuanian airports increased by 26%, despite the fact 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. Last year, more than 6,000 tons of cargo were transported through Lithuanian airports.