Aviation flows of the Lithuanian Airports were on the rise in 2023
The Lithuanian Airports serviced more than 6 million passengers within the year 2023, i.e. even 12 percent more than in the year 2022. It is recorded that the number of flights also increased in 2023: it was 4.5 percent higher than in the previous year and exceeded 53 thousand.
“If we compare not the total number but passenger flows particularly to western countries in 2023 with those taken to the same destination in 2019: we have already surpassed scope before pandemic. The general image of aviation in our region has strongly changed in previous several years; flights to the eastern destinations are not conducted, so it is now difficult to compare situation in the previous year with, for instance, situation in 2019 and its total indices. In summary, the rate of growth is really seen and will only become stronger in 2024”, Tomas Zitikis, the Route Development Manager of the Lithuanian Airports, says.
One of the main trends in 2023: increase in scope of activities of traditional air carriers in the Lithuanian Airports. See some examples: Finnair company makes four flights a day from Vilnius to Helsinki already during winter season, Lufthansa conducts flights to Frankfurt twice a day, SAS carrier makes 19 flights per week between Vilnius and Copenhagen, 12 flights per week to Stockholm are already conducted. Austrian Airlines make three flights per week between Vilnius and Vienna. Belgian carrier Brussels Airlines conducts four flights to Brussels per week. Polish air carrier LOT Polish Airlines makes up to 32 flights per week to Warsaw.
The expert calls record results of Kaunas Airport the major breakthrough in the previous year: more than 1.3 million passengers serviced which makes up about 12 percent more even in comparison with 2019.
According to T. Zitikis, features of targeted growth are seen not only in results of Kaunas airport but also in results of Vilnius and Palanga airports, so it is likely that this year acceleration will be maintained, and contribution of aviation sector to economy of the country will be even more solid. The aviation expert predicts that as demand to travel by aircrafts grows in the world at a record pace, total passenger flows in Lithuanian air gates this year will be similar to those in 2019, where they reached about 6.5 million.
Passenger flows were growing faster than the number of flights.
More than 6 million passengers travelled through the Lithuanian airports in 2023. For comparison, 5.35. million passengers took flights in 2022, 2.47 million – in 2021.
Most of all passengers had been serviced in Vilnius Airport – 4.4 million, where it made up 3.9 million passengers in 2022. Kaunas Airport serviced 1.3 million passengers in the previous year, and 1.16 million passengers in 2022. Palanga Airport serviced 307 thousand travellers, while 275 thousand passengers in 2022.
According to T. Zitikis, scope of flights in the Lithuanian airports had been growing more moderately than passenger flows, which had been caused by global deficiency in aircrafts. Such deficiency will also be felt this year.
According to company’s data, flow of flights in 2023 was almost 4.5 percent higher than in 2022. In total it managed to restore 85 percent of flow of flights recorded in 2019. More than 53 thousand flights had been serviced in the Lithuanian airports during 2023. In 2022, this number reached almost 51 thousand.
The major part of flights had been serviced at Vilnius Airport: about 38.7 thousand. 36.7 thousand flights had been serviced here the year before last. Kaunas air gates had serviced 10.7 thousand flights: about 2 percent more than the year ago. Similar (1.3 percent) growth had been recorded in Palanga, where 3.7 thousand flights had been serviced last year.