OREANDA-NEWS. July 08, 2014. Over the first five months this year, Palanga International Airport (PIA) handled 5 per cent more passengers compared to the same period in 2013. Currently, the Scandinavian airline SAS operates regular flights to Copenhagen, airBaltic to Riga, Norwegian Air Shuttle to Oslo and RusLine to Moscow.

“This summer season the aircrafts of Latvian and Norwegian airlines take off from Palanga more often: starting from 1 June, airBaltic flies to Riga on a daily basis; starting from St. John's Day to the end of the summer Norwegian will operate flights to Oslo three times a week. SAS, being a long-term partner of PIA, continues to offer two daily 60-minute flights to Copenhagen from where passengers are free to choose from 124 connecting flights in Europe and Scandinavia and 26 inter-continental flights,” said PIA Acting Director Vaida Gendrolyte.

On 15 June this year, a 50-seat aircraft of the Russian airline RusLine from Moscow Domodedovo Airport made its first landing at PIA this summer season. The aircraft loading on the first flight reached 80 per cent, which suggests that Palanga will welcome a high number of Russian travellers this year. Regular RusLine flights on the route Moscow-Palanga-Moscow will take place once a week until the end of the summer; from 6 July, the number of flights will double to two Sunday flights.

As mentioned earlier, State Enterprise Palanga International Airport is under reorganisation, and from 1 July this year it will become Palanga branch of State Enterprise Lithuanian Airports (Lith. Lietuvos oro uostai). However, passengers will not sense these changes because they only apply to the legal status of PIA rather than the activities of the airport itself.

“Passengers can already enjoy the advantages of a seaside airport: convenience, modernity, fast passenger service procedures. As the network of Lithuanian airports strengthens and concentrates the single policy of development of national airports in the same hands, Palanga Airport will see greater opportunities to improve passenger service quality, to attract new airlines as well as to create better conditions for the airlines already operating at the airport to develop new destinations. It would not only boost the passenger traffic but would also increase the region’s accessibility, bringing more direct income to the whole seaside region, whereas Palanga Airport would exploit the modern infrastructure for the handling of flights from Schengen and non-Schengen countries far more effectively,” said Managing Director of Vilnius International Airport Gediminas Almantas.