Lithuanian airports witnessed a 90% passenger traffic recovery as compared to the pre-pandemic levels and almost 80% flight traffic in October 2022. In October 2022, 548 000 passengers travelled through Lithuanian airports, 4 713 flights were handled along with substantial growth in cargo volumes.
Tomas Zitikis, Route Development Manager of Lithuanian Airports, said: “The growth in the number of passengers has been influenced by the rapid increase in charter flights. From September to October, charter passenger traffic grew by 15%. This year's charter traffic is 4% higher than in the same period a year ago. One of the main factors behind the growth in October is the school holidays and the possibility of travelling for longer holidays.”
The report also highlights that Kaunas Airport continued to demonstrate an exceptional rate of recovery and has outperformed some of the indicators for the same month in 2019.
“The Kaunas Airport continues to outperform for the seventh month in a row. In October, passenger traffic at Kaunas Airport grew by 6.8% compared to the same period in 2019. We managed to restore 98% of flight traffic and cargo traffic grew 1.5 times,” Zitikis commented.
Interestingly, all airports experienced growth in both flight and passenger traffic. However, the fastest recovery was in cargo traffic.
“Freight transport, like travelling, is seasonal. However, it is important to understand that passenger traffic peaks in Lithuanian airports in the summer, while cargo traffic peaks in the winter. In October this year, we handled 28% more cargo than in the same period in 2019. This is due to the high demand for e-commerce. Typically, it drops slightly in the summer period, but demand picks up in the run-up to the major holidays. Seasonality is also reflected in this year's aviation figures,” Zitikis added.
Lithuanian airports handled almost 2000 tonnes of cargo in October 2022, 1500 tonnes at Vilnius Airport, just over 400 tonnes at Kaunas Airport and 118 tonnes at Palanga Airport. In comparison, in the same period of 2019, slightly more than 1,500 tonnes of cargo were transported through Lithuanian airports. Last year, the total volume of cargo transported was 1700 thousand tonnes.
Considering the pace of aviation recovery, growth continued to increase at all Lithuanian airports. Plus, the number of destinations almost surpassed the pre-pandemic level. Since the beginning of the year, Lithuanian airports have offered 85 destinations, compared to 82 destinations in the same period last year and 89 in 2019.
In October 2022, Vilnius Airport managed to restore 84% of its pre-pandemic passenger traffic with 406 000 passengers travelling through this gateway. In comparison, 485 000 passengers travelled through Vilnius Airport in the same period in 2019 and 287 000 last year. In October 2022, almost 3.5 thousand flights were handled, compared to almost 4.5 thousand in the same period in 2019 and 3.1 thousand last year.