Vilnius and airports in Lithuania
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It is indeed great news about Star1. They only have 1 plane to begin with (to operate 3 scheduled and 5 charter routes!) but hope to have a 2nd plane by the 2nd half of the summer when they will increase the frequency from London and add routes from Vilnius to Milan and Paris. 
Petersen is having a valid moan about the discounts that Ryanair and airBaltic have had at Riga Airport since 2005 which equated to tax breaks of €16m (they were also both charged €1 per aircraft for ground handling at one stage!).
He also goes on to slag off Riga's claims to be a hub for northern Europe when they don't have any flights to Asia.
The tax breaks were basically the main reason why airBaltic were able to win the pricewar with flyLAL. Poor management from LAL and a lack of support from the Lith government also helped. FlyLAL were trying to sue airBaltic but the information on the tax breaks didn't surface in time and have only recently become public knowledge. The agreement signed by Ryanair was for the tax breaks upto 2015 and now that Riga Airport have withdrawn them with effect from November there are fears that Ryanair could now sue the airport!!
Couple of interesting articles if you want to know more...
Riga Airport President hopes Ryanair will not sue the airport for canceling discounts :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics
Ryanair was charged just EUR 1 for aircraft ground handling at Riga Airport :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics
Petersen is having a valid moan about the discounts that Ryanair and airBaltic have had at Riga Airport since 2005 which equated to tax breaks of €16m (they were also both charged €1 per aircraft for ground handling at one stage!).
He also goes on to slag off Riga's claims to be a hub for northern Europe when they don't have any flights to Asia.
The tax breaks were basically the main reason why airBaltic were able to win the pricewar with flyLAL. Poor management from LAL and a lack of support from the Lith government also helped. FlyLAL were trying to sue airBaltic but the information on the tax breaks didn't surface in time and have only recently become public knowledge. The agreement signed by Ryanair was for the tax breaks upto 2015 and now that Riga Airport have withdrawn them with effect from November there are fears that Ryanair could now sue the airport!!
Couple of interesting articles if you want to know more...
Riga Airport President hopes Ryanair will not sue the airport for canceling discounts :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics
Ryanair was charged just EUR 1 for aircraft ground handling at Riga Airport :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics
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London - Vilnius
Star1: evening (1820) flight from Stansted
Aer Lingus: morning (0700) from Gatwick
Vilnius - London
Star1: late afternoon (1700) flight to Stansted
Aer Lingus: noon (1225) to Gatwick
I think both London services can compliment each other due to the fact that different airports are being served, and at different times.
PS - regarding Vilnius to Dublin, I notice Aer Lingus operate morning flights with Dublin based aircraft, and Star1 will operate night flights with a Vilnius based aircraft...
Star1: evening (1820) flight from Stansted
Aer Lingus: morning (0700) from Gatwick
Vilnius - London
Star1: late afternoon (1700) flight to Stansted
Aer Lingus: noon (1225) to Gatwick
I think both London services can compliment each other due to the fact that different airports are being served, and at different times.
PS - regarding Vilnius to Dublin, I notice Aer Lingus operate morning flights with Dublin based aircraft, and Star1 will operate night flights with a Vilnius based aircraft...
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Hey
Who exactly are Star1?
Good news about the Aer Lingus flights. They really were a no brainer considering Aer Lingus already have a relationship with Vilnius airport, servicing the Lithuanian diaspora in Ireland. Also, Vilnius had no connection to London, and EIs base in Gatwick fits hand-in-glove with FlyLALs former route. There is also a sizable LT community in South East England.
C
Who exactly are Star1?
Good news about the Aer Lingus flights. They really were a no brainer considering Aer Lingus already have a relationship with Vilnius airport, servicing the Lithuanian diaspora in Ireland. Also, Vilnius had no connection to London, and EIs base in Gatwick fits hand-in-glove with FlyLALs former route. There is also a sizable LT community in South East England.
C
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Two small news bits from Vilnius:
Looks like scheduled FlyLAL is not dead just yet:
flyLAL will renew flights from Vilnius if the case against airBaltic and Riga Airport is won :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics
Star1 flights to Stansted are operating now, very nice
to see London back on the VNO departure board:
Departure schedule real time
I checked the reg, it's a former Hamburg International
plane, 10 years old, nothing wrong then. This is I believe
currently the only LY-registered plane doing scheduled
flights. They already play the patriotic card in their PR,
rightfully so.
Looks like scheduled FlyLAL is not dead just yet:
flyLAL will renew flights from Vilnius if the case against airBaltic and Riga Airport is won :: The Baltic Course | Baltic States news & analytics
Star1 flights to Stansted are operating now, very nice
to see London back on the VNO departure board:
Departure schedule real time
I checked the reg, it's a former Hamburg International
plane, 10 years old, nothing wrong then. This is I believe
currently the only LY-registered plane doing scheduled
flights. They already play the patriotic card in their PR,
rightfully so.
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AirBaltic resurrects VNO base
Good news from Vilnius (already indicated by VNO's chief's somewhat cool comments about the Lithuania Express project recently): AirBaltic watched the game long enough, and found it's about time to resurrect its VNO base properly, with flights to TXL, CDG, MUC, AMS, FCO, 3x weekly and more, starting as soon as mid-December. I tried the direct VNO-TXL and this is bookable already. These are exactly the airports 'Lithuania Express' wanted to serve. Of course, I do hope they find a few other gaps and still will start-up, I know people in LT would like to see more LT-registered planes at their airports. AirBaltic do stay away from Britain though, which is now pretty well covered with AerLingus and Star1. Find the full list here:
Aktuelle Routennews - airliners.de - Forum
Some interesting comments from their CEO about VNO:
Press releases
Makes you wonder if the CEOs from Wizzair and Easyjet are aware of this new deal.
Aktuelle Routennews - airliners.de - Forum
Some interesting comments from their CEO about VNO:
Press releases
Makes you wonder if the CEOs from Wizzair and Easyjet are aware of this new deal.
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I think Vilnius may be the only EU airport still to have regular scheduled passenger flights operated by Antonov 24 aircraft. The flights go to Kiev-Borispol and are operated by Donbassaero four times a week. If you fancy going, though, hurry up, as I understand there are plans to switch to a Saab 340 service.
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News from Vilnius
After a quite dire time, here's a bunch of good news from VNO (ok, apart from the first one, but this was an adventure by the Irish):
- Aer Lingus to stop LGW flight on 27 Mar 2010, now official (not bookable beyond this date).
- Air Baltic to re-start VNO-LON, airport t.b.c., but likely LGW as they already do RIX from there (LHR could be more interesting though due to the connections maybe as BA or BD/LH code-share, LCY surely also has its charms, but both very unlikely), official announcement to come next week.
- Estonian Air to launch AMS flight in February in cooperation with KLM.
- SAS already re-started Copenhagen flights.
People interested in VNO would probably agree that all this means no gap in the market for the projected 'Lithuania Express' start-up anymore (who mentioned BER, CPH, AMS in their statement back in October).
I do hope though that Star1 can keep a decent share of the London market, as it's still the only LT-registered plane doing scheduled flights. STN is far enough from LGW to have a different group of people as customers.
All of this is not great news for MOL and FR at KUN (apologies for the Schadenfreude, but we at BHX are not too unhappy if things don't go his way...)
- Aer Lingus to stop LGW flight on 27 Mar 2010, now official (not bookable beyond this date).
- Air Baltic to re-start VNO-LON, airport t.b.c., but likely LGW as they already do RIX from there (LHR could be more interesting though due to the connections maybe as BA or BD/LH code-share, LCY surely also has its charms, but both very unlikely), official announcement to come next week.
- Estonian Air to launch AMS flight in February in cooperation with KLM.
- SAS already re-started Copenhagen flights.
People interested in VNO would probably agree that all this means no gap in the market for the projected 'Lithuania Express' start-up anymore (who mentioned BER, CPH, AMS in their statement back in October).
I do hope though that Star1 can keep a decent share of the London market, as it's still the only LT-registered plane doing scheduled flights. STN is far enough from LGW to have a different group of people as customers.
All of this is not great news for MOL and FR at KUN (apologies for the Schadenfreude, but we at BHX are not too unhappy if things don't go his way...)
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Air Baltic to re-start VNO-LON, airport t.b.c., but likely LGW
airBaltic | Facebook
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They confirmed it would be Gatwick on their Facebook page in the comments under the status update made at: 12 January at 12:25
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To add that Palanga/Klaipeda airport (PLQ), the airport for the scenic Curonian Spit, now has a 3x daily (!) flight by SAS to Copenhagen. PLQ would also be a good destination from VNO (as esp the rail connection is not yet properly developed, and it's quite a while to drive), but that's not re-started yet, but we'll see when the summer holiday season starts. AirBaltic do frequent PLQ-RIX, which works for them for hub connections.
The only reason I speculated about AirBaltics's VNO-LON was that the press release (from Baltic Course website -> Transport) somehow oddly said 'London' without stating the exact airport, I guess LHR was never really on the cards. LGW is ok, the traditional airport for LON-VNO since the good old days of Lithuanian Airlines.
The only reason I speculated about AirBaltics's VNO-LON was that the press release (from Baltic Course website -> Transport) somehow oddly said 'London' without stating the exact airport, I guess LHR was never really on the cards. LGW is ok, the traditional airport for LON-VNO since the good old days of Lithuanian Airlines.
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New airline project US-Baltics
As mentioned in a seperate thread: Looks like people in the US are wondering to connect VNO, RIX, LED and other places in the region to NYC:
Baltia Air Lines
The website has decent design and some content. No flight or reservation details though (all new long-haul airlines are under a UKIA suspicion these days...) Looks like a very adventurous project in the current day and age.
However if realised could be great. Am wondering if a passenger B747 ever landed in VNO (oh, it did, Air Force One ).
Baltia Air Lines
The website has decent design and some content. No flight or reservation details though (all new long-haul airlines are under a UKIA suspicion these days...) Looks like a very adventurous project in the current day and age.
However if realised could be great. Am wondering if a passenger B747 ever landed in VNO (oh, it did, Air Force One
).
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Further expansion from BT at VNO, see details here:
Press releases
Check these mad flying hours, you can now do a UK-Baltics flight in traditional 'red-eye' transatlantic fashion
Th 1/4 00:50 Manchester 05:55 Vilnius BT676 Economy Class, T
Sa 3/4 22:40 Vilnius 00:10 Manchester BT675 Economy Class, T
Should be noted though that their LGW-VNO is just twice weekly, quite low in frequency, I guess they planned this before EI retreated. BT clearly in expansion mode, of course if all of this works out remains to be seen. Some routes are in competition with other airlines.
Press releases
Check these mad flying hours, you can now do a UK-Baltics flight in traditional 'red-eye' transatlantic fashion
Th 1/4 00:50 Manchester 05:55 Vilnius BT676 Economy Class, T
Sa 3/4 22:40 Vilnius 00:10 Manchester BT675 Economy Class, T
Should be noted though that their LGW-VNO is just twice weekly, quite low in frequency, I guess they planned this before EI retreated. BT clearly in expansion mode, of course if all of this works out remains to be seen. Some routes are in competition with other airlines.
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LGW-VNO is starting off as only 2 days per week but this is to the end of March. I am fairly certain they will increase the frequency with EI pulling out at the same time. London was historically the most popular route from Vilnius so the demand should be there for airbaltic.
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Vilnius:
BT: London (LGW), Paris, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Hamburg, Manchester, Dublin, Oslo
Star1: London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Milan, Barcelona (GRO)
Kaunas:
FR: Barcelona (GRO), Birmingham, Berlin (SXF), Bremen, Dusseldorf (NRN), Bristol, Edinburgh, Brussels (CRL), London (STN, LTN, LGW), Dublin, Milan (BGY), Frankfurt (HHN), Oslo (RYG), Liverpool, Paris (BVA), Tampere
Some routes like Munich, Rome or Tampere don't have any competitor but almost all the others relate to each other in competition.
BT: London (LGW), Paris, Munich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rome, Hamburg, Manchester, Dublin, Oslo
Star1: London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Milan, Barcelona (GRO)
Kaunas:
FR: Barcelona (GRO), Birmingham, Berlin (SXF), Bremen, Dusseldorf (NRN), Bristol, Edinburgh, Brussels (CRL), London (STN, LTN, LGW), Dublin, Milan (BGY), Frankfurt (HHN), Oslo (RYG), Liverpool, Paris (BVA), Tampere
Some routes like Munich, Rome or Tampere don't have any competitor but almost all the others relate to each other in competition.
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Thanks Seljuk22, was first wondering: Where does he get all those FR routes from ? It's as KUN has been announced as base today:
News : Ryanair Announces 40th Base at Kaunas (Lithuania)
I tried to get some frequencies, but e.g. SXF-KUN, LGW-KUN, NRN-KUN are not yet bookable. Maybe that will help public transport links from KUN which are still poor (esp from the terminal to Kaunas-1 train station). Substituting the various FR destinations with their real location (worst probably is Beauvais, but also Weeze, Hahn), they will serve different groups of people than Vilnius. Not so sure so many people will now go from KUN instead of VNO. BT is e.g. pretty unbeatable w.r.t. frequencies via RIX to many place in Europe.
News : Ryanair Announces 40th Base at Kaunas (Lithuania)
I tried to get some frequencies, but e.g. SXF-KUN, LGW-KUN, NRN-KUN are not yet bookable. Maybe that will help public transport links from KUN which are still poor (esp from the terminal to Kaunas-1 train station). Substituting the various FR destinations with their real location (worst probably is Beauvais, but also Weeze, Hahn), they will serve different groups of people than Vilnius. Not so sure so many people will now go from KUN instead of VNO. BT is e.g. pretty unbeatable w.r.t. frequencies via RIX to many place in Europe.
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Bad news: Lots of cuts from Kaunas to Germany: Bremen, Weeze and Schoenefeld going. Only remaining German destination is Hahn. From article on airliners.de.
Good news: Kaunas main station is back for the fast train to Vilnius. There is a regular bus from the airport. No more confusion about a 'Kaunas-1' station then.
Good news: Kaunas main station is back for the fast train to Vilnius. There is a regular bus from the airport. No more confusion about a 'Kaunas-1' station then.
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Not that it's necessarily relevant, but for those who've not been there; VNO airport is seriously cool. The front of it is almost an art deco building, like something from another era. Highly recommended for anyone interested in such things...
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I can only agree about Vilnius - the old terminal is really amazing and atmospheric. I was at Lviv airport in the summer too and that's pretty cool, although they won't let you take pictures from the outside! But VNO is definitely the prettiest.
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From Baltic Business News:
Starting from March 27, the Latvian national airline airBaltic will cancel four routes from Vilnius, namely to Dublin, London, Rome and Paris, writes The Lithuania Tribune with reference to Baltic News Network.
According to the airline, these routes will be cancelled since other airlines operating to or from Vilnius are offering identical routes.
Among others, Ryanair and Wizzair have recently announced new routes from Vilnius that will be overlapping with the ones operated by airBaltic.
"The world has enough destinations, and we prefer to avoid overcrowding so that our planes would not fly side-by-side with other airlines," said Tadas Vizgirda, Lithuanian area manager of airBaltic.
According to the airline, these routes will be cancelled since other airlines operating to or from Vilnius are offering identical routes.
Among others, Ryanair and Wizzair have recently announced new routes from Vilnius that will be overlapping with the ones operated by airBaltic.
"The world has enough destinations, and we prefer to avoid overcrowding so that our planes would not fly side-by-side with other airlines," said Tadas Vizgirda, Lithuanian area manager of airBaltic.