Summary
- Lithuania has three main commercial airports in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Palanga.
- Some of the largest airlines are LOT Polish Airlines, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, airBaltic, and Wizz Air.
- Ryanair is the largest airline in Lithuania, offering the most scheduled seats, flights, and ASKs.
Lithuania, a small European country, has three main airports that connect it to the world: Vilnius Airport (VNO), Kaunas Airport (KUN), and Palanga Airport (PLQ). There is a fourth airport, namely Šiauliai International Airport (SQQ), yet it has no scheduled commercial flights and houses the NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission, where allies rotate in their fighter squadrons to oversee the space over the three Baltic countries.
Nevertheless, since flyLAL, Lithuania’s de facto national flag carrier, declared bankruptcy in 2009, and Air Lituanica’s short-lived adventure between 2013 and 2015, none of the airports have had a home airline. Some carriers have based aircraft at either VNO or KUN, including airBaltic, Ryanair, and Wizz Air.
According to Lithuanian Airports (LTOU), the three airports welcomed more than six million passengers in 2023, resulting in 12% growth year-on-year. Furthermore, the six million threshold was passed despite the NATO Safety Summit essentially forcing VNO to suspend flights for several days in July 2023.
Going into 2024, Tomas Zitkis, the Roude Development Manager of LTOU and now the Head of Route Development at the managing company, said that LTOU expects growth to continue in 2024. So, which airlines will be the largest to operate out of the country’s airports in terms of scheduled one-way seats, according to data from the aviation analytics company Cirium?
5 LOT Polish Airlines
Scheduled seats in 2024: 193,684
- Flights: 2,002
- ASKs: 114.8 million
The flag carrier of Poland, LOT Polish Airlines, is the fifth-largest airline at Lithuania’s airports in terms of seats. However, the Polish carrier only flies out of VNO to two destinations: Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW) and London City Airport (LCY), with the latter being a public service obligation (PSO) route, subsidized by the Lithuanian government. LOT Polish Airlines is scheduled to operate either the Embraer E190 or E195 on the route.
Photo: Lithuanian Airports
While the airline has scheduled more flights in 2024 than in 2023, its overall seats and Available Seat Kilometers (ASK) will dwindle. LOT Polish Airlines’ flying schedule will grow by 5.3% flights, yet the scheduled seats and ASKs will drop by 0.5% and 3.6%, respectively.
London City To Lithuania: LOT Polish Airlines Chosen To Continue Vilnius Service
It’s unclear if any other airlines submitted bids for the route, but incumbent airline LOT will continue its service from Vilnius to London City.
4 SAS Scandinavian Airlines
Scheduled seats in 2024: 199,900
- Flights: 2,139
- ASKs: 137.1 million
Fourth on the list is the de facto national flag carrier of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, SAS Scandinavian Airlines. In addition to flights out of VNO, the carrier also operates flights out of PLQ, which is on the western side of the country.
Photo: The Global Guy | Shutterstock
SAS mainly feeds traffic to its other hubs, namely Copenhagen Airport (CPH) and Stockholm Arlanda Airport (ARN). However, the carrier offers no connections to Oslo Airport (OSL). Nevertheless, SAS will grow in VNO and PLQ in terms of flights, seats, and ASKs by 17.5%, 23.2%, and 23.2%, respectively. Most of the growth will result in more flights from the Lithuanian capital to the Danish and Swedish capitals, with 271 out of 319 additional itineraries connecting VNO, CPH, and ARN.
Why SAS Is The Flag Carrier Of 3 Countries
The airline has close ties to the region of Scandinavia as a whole.
3 airBaltic
Scheduled seats in 2024: 565,065
- Flights: 3,897
- ASKs: 473.9 million
Surprisingly, airBaltic, the self-proclaimed airline of the Baltic States, is only the third airline at Lithuania’s airports in terms of its seats. However, the carrier offers the second-busiest flight schedule out of VNO and PLQ. The difference in the ranking in terms of seats and flights is easily explained by the fact that the previous two carriers operate much larger aircraft than the Latvian carrier’s all-Airbus A220-300 fleet.
Photo: Karolis Kavolelis | Shutterstock
According to the airline, it configures its A220-300s with 148 seats. Still, as it continues taking delivery of aircraft, and with the recently announced order for 50 additional single-aisle jets of the type (30 firm, 20 options), airBaltic’s presence at VNO and PLQ is scheduled to grow. Interestingly, the top three largest growth markets will be the following three routes: PLQ to Riga Airport (RIX), VNO to Tallinn Airport (TLL), and VNO to Munich Airport (MUC).
airBaltic Clocks Airbus’ First Dubai Airshow Order With Firm Commitment For 30 A220-300s
The airline wants a fleet of 100 A220s by 2030.
2 Wizz Air
Scheduled seats in 2024: 6544,880
- Flights: 2,880
- ASKs: 1.1 billion
The first of the two dominant low-cost carriers at LTOU, Wizz Air has always been a major presence at the country’s airports since it entered the market in April 2011. As such, in terms of scheduled seats, the low-cost carrier is the second-largest in the country. The airline currently offers flights out of VNO and KUN and has previously operated routes from PLQ.
Photo: Erik Ladyga | Shutterstock
Comparing Wizz Air’s schedules between 2023 and 2024, it is evident that the airline is withdrawing from flying from KUN, shifting some of those flights to VNO. Year-on-Year (YoY), Wizz Air will reduce flights, seats, and ASKs at KUN by 18.1%, 13.6%, and 12.9%, respectively, while increasing flights from VNO by 30.2%, 62%, and 65%, respectively.
Record Traffic Pushes Wizz Air To $428 Million Profit
Passenger levels jumped over 25% in the months leading up to September, with robust demand keeping load factor above 90%.
1 Ryanair
Scheduled seats in 2024: 1.4 million
- Flights: 7,454
- ASKs: 2.1 billion
By far, Ryanair is the largest airline in the country in terms of scheduled seats, flights, and ASKs. It is the only airline to offer more than 1 million scheduled seats, with the low-cost carrier offering almost twice the flights as airBaltic, which has more flights than Wizz Air, yet offers fewer seats.
Photo: Tetiana Shumbasova | Shutterstock
Nevertheless, Ryanair still plans to grow its schedule out of all three Lithuanian airports, including VNO, KUN, and PLQ. Compared to 2023, the airline plans to offer 807 more flights, resulting in 159,026 additional seats, resulting in 235.1 million additional ASKs. This represents a year-on-year growth of 12.1%, 12.6%, and 12.1%, respectively, with Ryanair firmly strengthening its position in the country.
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