Since the Polish airline LOT started direct business flights from Vilnius to London City airport in May, Lithuanian airports claims that the new direction has met expectations, but profitability will appear in a few years.
According to the Lithuanian airports, since the start of the flights, the occupancy of the aircraft has been growing every month, currently reaching about 68 percent.
"Expectations, of course, have come true. The whole direction was important not only for airports, but also for our partners, investors, the entire business environment, and emigrants, and East London has the largest Lithuanian community. As a result, the flight potential is really considerable," Aurimas Stikliūnas, head of the Aviation Services Department of Lithuanian Airports, told BNS.
However, he added that the direction will be profitable only after a few years.
"The occupancy of the aircraft is one thing, the profitability of the route is quite another. This is a long-term project and we see that the direction's profitability will appear not in the first or second year, but in subsequent years. Now the essential thing is to popularize the direction both in Lithuania and Great Britain", said A. Stikliūnas.
He also said that this route differs from other routes to Britain in that more British citizens and more business passengers fly to Lithuania.
The direction increases tourism flows and encourages investors
According to A. Stikliūnas, the new direction encouraged some investors to come to the Lithuanian market.
"This flight was planned taking into account business needs, there are two daily flights so that businessmen can fly during the day, so the businessmen segment is one of the main ones. There is also no shortage of emigrants and tourists from Great Britain, who, like the Germans, do not all fly with low-cost airlines. After LOT offers this direction, we can see that the flow of incoming tourism is also increasing", said A. Stikliūnas.
According to the statistics department, during May and June, the number of tourists from the UK in accommodation facilities reached 17,1 thousand, compared to 16,5 thousand at the same time last year.
Foreign Investment Development Agencies "Invest in LithuaniaAccording to him, at least five essential aspects are important when investors choose a country: talent quality, their price, business environment, infrastructure and quality of life.
"We cannot say that one flight direction attracted specific investors to Lithuania, but we definitely have examples when the poorer accessibility of Lithuania led to the decision of potential investors to choose another location," Gediminas Koryzna, director of the Investment Development Department of Invest in Lithuania, said in a comment to BNS.
"After the arrival of the flight direction (Vilnius-London City - BNS), Lithuania has already been chosen by such companies as Moody's, AmerisourceBergen, Revolut and Blockchain, which emphasized that having this particular flight determined the inclusion of Lithuania in their considered locations list," he added.
A hard Brexit will not affect flights
A. Stikliūnas does not think that due to the possible withdrawal of Britain from the European Union without an agreement, there could be no direction. He emphasized that no fundamental changes from the aviation side should take place.
"It is likely that the flights will be carried out in any case, it is only a matter of the passengers themselves. If Britain decides to leave the Schengen zone, then there may be some negative effect in the short term, but at the moment we do not foresee that, passenger flows are growing, we see positive results", said A. Stikliūnas.
Britain itself is at greater risk, he said.
"Both emigrants and business passengers, nothing should change from the point of view of communication, unless there are additional restrictions and inspections that we cannot plan. At the moment, the UK will suffer greater risks and greater losses than the rest of the EU countries", said A. Stikliūnas.
The flights will be sponsored by the ministry
This flight will be supported for the first time in Europe - it took two years to convince the European Commission to allow the use of the support mechanism, as the EU is skeptical of state support for flights.
"The exact compensation amount will be known at the beginning of 2020, after evaluating all the results of 2019," the Ministry of Economy and Innovation informed BNS.
Minister Virginijus Sinkevičius has said that the maximum amount of support per year will not exceed 3 million. euros.
The contract with LOT is signed for five years.
Author: Erika Alonderytė
