OREANDA-NEWS. February 14, 2012. The passenger traffic at Vilnius International Airport (VIA) has shown a steady upward trend since the previous year, and the result of the first month this year was the best compared to January statistics throughout all years of the airport’s operation, reported the press-centre of Vilnius International Airport.

In January 2012, the airport handled 129.3 thousand passengers, which surpassed the January result of 2011 by as much as by 66.08%. Until now, the best January result was achieved in 2008 when the number of passengers soared to 128.5 thousand; it equalled to 93.2 thousand in 2009, 88.9 thousand in 2010 and 77.8 thousand in 2011.

“It is an inspiring start of the year. We are hoping that the unstable economic situation in Europe will not interfere with the ambitious growth plans of Vilnius Airport and we will be pleased to have an even higher number of new routes and new airlines opening their bases at the airport,” Minister of Transport and Communications Eligijus Masiulis commented on VIA results.

The passenger traffic on Moscow route has nearly doubled. Utair Aviation has been operating flights to Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport for 4 years; Transaero Airlines started flights to Domodedovo Airport from 1 December 2011; after an 8-year break, the airline Aeroflot will connect Vilnius and Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow by daily flights from the end of March this year.

The expansion of direct communication with Italy last year brought excellent results in January this year: compared to January 2011, the passenger traffic to Rome skyrocketed by as many as 5.5 times, while the passenger flow to Milan increased by 3 times. Two low-cost airlines Wizz Air and Ryanair operate flights to Rome and Milan. 

The so called business routes from Vilnius Airport to Helsinki, Kiev, Warsaw and Vienna retained their popularity – they all maintained a stable growth rate of 10% and more, whereas Frankfurt route showed a particularly good result: passenger numbers have nearly doubled.

In 2011 Vilnius Airport handled the total of 1.713 million passengers, i.e. 24.7% more compared to 2010. The number of flights rose 6.1%; freight traffic boomed by as much as 9.2%.