OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2015. The peak of Lithuanian holidays is already coming to an end, although in aviation the summer season will end on last Sunday of October. The three Lithuanian airports – in Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga – have serviced over 1.3 million passengers during the three calendar summer months, i.e. by 9% more compared to the same period last year. In fact, this year has shown that holidays on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea start losing in popularity to Southern European cities.

This summer showed the increased popularity of Italian and Spanish cities – over 65 thousand passengers were carried to/from Milan, i.e. by 30% more compared to the same period last year. Travelling to Barcelona was chosen by more than 40 thousand people, i.e. by 20% more than last year, and the route to Madrid, opened in spring was already chosen by more than 25 thousand passengers this year. The result of the new route to Odessa launched in late June amounts to 3 thousand passengers.

This year, the total number of travellers to the Mediterranean islands reduced by 4%. The number of passengers flying to Malta and Rhode decreased by as much as 10 percent. However Cyprus and its two resorts, Larnaca and Paphos, still maintain their popularity: this summer has shown 5% increase in people travelling these destinations.

Lithuanian Airports also have direct routes to other islands popular among tourists – Sicily, Kos, Palma de Mallorca, Corfu and Crete. Both regular and charter airline companies fly there. This summer charter airlines carried the largest number of passengers to Antalya, Heraklion, Varna, Burgas and Hurghada.

“There are two types of holiday-makers – those who want to relax, they give all planning concerns to travel agencies by purchasing a package holiday, and those who want to plan their trip themselves, from A to Z. The airline companies operating in Lithuanian Airports are able to meet the needs of all of them, therefore our goal is to offer our passengers as many options as possible so they can choose the most attractive option”, said Indr? Baltru?aitien?, the Head of Communication and Marketing Department at Lithuanian Airports.

Top routes of Lithuanian Airports remain almost unchanged during different seasons – most passengers travel from Vilnius airport to Frankfurt, London’s Luton airport and Riga, from Kaunas to London’s Stansted and Luton airports as well as Dublin, and from Palanga to Copenhagen and Oslo.