Long-distance passenger transport company ("Toks") from March 5. resumes a fifth of intercity flights. The routes with the most passengers will be updated first.
Company representatives predict that the first trips will be unprofitable, but they expect that more than a third of passengers will return to intercity buses in the spring.
"Toks" company plans to renew a fifth of its flights in two stages.
From March 5 daily flights from Vilnius to Kybartis, Klaipėda, Nauja Akmenė and Rokiškis are renewed. And from March 8 daily bus from the capital will be able to reach Birži, Mazeikii, Šakii, and the second flight to Rokiškii will be renewed.
"We laid out the routes in such a way that it was possible to reach as many district centers as possible by bus. We also took passengers' requests into account. For the time being, the movement of people between municipalities is restricted, but we hope that it will soften with time and people will move more confidently to their homesteads or to visit their relatives. We expect the biggest breakthrough with the start of mass vaccination of the population. According to our calculations, a third of the passengers should return to the buses by the end of spring", says Arūnas Indrašius, CEO of "Toks".
According to him, the route times are arranged in such a way that it is convenient to go to and from another city on the same day.
The company will decide on the resumption of other flights when a decision is made to free movement between municipalities. According to the legislation regulating passenger transport, companies will have to update all routes within a month of the end of the quarantine.
According to A. Indrašius, the company takes all safety measures when transporting passengers - buses are disinfected every day, drivers are tested with rapid tests, and passengers are seated while maintaining a safe distance.
After banning movement between municipalities, the passenger flow of the "Toks" company dropped by more than 80 percent. Accordingly, 80 percent income also fell.
