OREANDA-NEWS. July 09, 2012. The passenger traffic at Vilnius International Airport (VIA) has shown a steady upward trend since the previous year, and the result of June this year was the best throughout all years of the airport’s operation, reported the press-centre of Vilnius Airport.

In June 2012, the airport handled 228.6 thousand passengers, which surpassed the result of June 2011 by 23%. Until now, the best monthly result was achieved in August 2008, when the number of passengers soared to 224.6 thousand. 2,775 flights were operated in the first summer month, showing a 7% growth.

The growth in regular flights accounted for 25%, while charter flights witnessed a 15% increase. The most popular June destinations were London, Frankfurt, Riga, Antalya, Copenhagen and Moscow.  

971 thousand passengers were handled in six months this year, showing a 36% growth in passenger numbers compared to the same period in 2011.

“The successful results of the first half of the year reached the peak on 15 June, when Vilnius Airport beat the record of the passengers handled in one day: 4,498 passengers departed from Vilnius Airport and 4,530 passengers arrived at Vilnius Airport, totalling 9,028 passengers handled by the airport,” Tomas Vaisvila, VIA Managing Director, commented the results. “Most passengers arrived from Riga – 371, while the number of departing passengers was the highest on London route – 490. A large part of passengers – 1834 – travelled to holiday destinations – Sicily, Cyprus, Turkey, and Greece.”

Until now, the highest number of passengers handled in one day was 8,682 passengers on 17 August 2008.

In 2007 Vilnius Airport handled 1,717 million passengers, 2,048 million in 2008, 1,308 million in 2009, 1,373 million in 2010, and 1,715 million in 2011. It is expected to reach a 25% growth in passenger traffic in 2012. 20 airlines operate regular flights from Vilnius Airport on as many as 39 direct routes.