OREANDA-NEWS.  New markets have opened the opportunity for charter airline Small Planet Airlines to exceed the number of 1 million passengers during this year. After attaining this result, Small Planet Airlines would become the first Lithuanian capital company that has carried more than 1 million passengers annually.

In 2012 Small Planet Airlines has served 0.7 million passengers. According to company estimates, the number of the passengers carried from the bases operated in Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom and France will exceed 1 million thus reaching a 43% annual growth of the total number of passengers carried.

The growth of number of passengers was the most determined by the new destinations served in France. In addition, the number of passengers in the Polish market increased by one and a half time, and in Lithuania by one-fifth. 

“This year, we observe an evident revival in chartered flights market. Also, a large number of customers are choosing not only traditional and tested holiday destinations, but are started to look for new, more exotic countries. Seeing this trend in the market, our company plans new routes and shall expand and change our current fleet – after this summer season, we plan to return 2 of the oldest mainline fleet units to their previous owners and replace them acquiring 3 newer Airbus A320 aircraft”, says Vytautas Kaikaris, the CEO of Small Planet Airlines. 

The previous season, Small Planet Airlines Mainline Fleet consisted from 9 aircraft, out of which 2 are located in Lithuania, 3 - in Poland, 2 – in the Great Britain and 2 – in France.

In the Lithuanian market, Small Planet Airlines data indicates that Turkey remains the most favoured holiday destination for Lithuanians – the company has registered 41% growth of travellers to Turkey during 2013 season. Today, almost every second Small Planet Airlines holiday flight is destined to Turkey. Small Planet Airlines passenger statistics showed that the most intensive growth was registered in holiday travel from Lithuania to Bulgaria (139% annual growth) and Spain (71% opted for this country compared to summer of 2012). Holidays in Greece were chosen by 20% more Lithuanians in 2013, but destinations in Egypt registered a 10% decrease, compared to last year.

Small Planet Airlines customers in Poland chose Greece as their favourite destination – the number of holidaymakers flights served to this destination increased almost 4 times. At the same time, the holiday routes of the airline passengers flying to Egypt registered a 21%, and to Turkey – a 12% annual growth in the Polish market.

In accordance to Small Planet Airlines data, the most popular summer destinations in the UK market were Greece, Spain and Italy, however the highest increase of passengers was on routes to Cyprus – a twice higher numbers of Britons chose to travel with Small Planet Airlines to spent holidays in this country, compared to 2012.

In the French market, where Small Planet Airlines debuted this year, half of the holiday passengers chose to travel to Greece, followed by Italy, Portugal and Spain in the summer of 2013.