OREANDA-NEWS. Vilnius Airport has served 332 thousand passengers this August – this is the record of the capital’s airport during the entire period of operation since 1932. During the last summer month of the last year, 301 thousand passengers travelled to/from Vilnius Airport by air, this year the number rose by 10%. The capital’s airport expects to receive over 3 million passengers in total this year – the threshold of 2 million has been reached in mid-August.

Vilnius Airport has been servicing over 300 thousand passengers since May. Considering the number of travellers and flights in the capital, the summer season, which in aviation begins from the end of March, is always the most intensive period. The record numbers have resulted from the increased frequency of flights to/from Vilnius by some airlines and the opening of new routes to Madrid, Saint Petersburg and Odessa.

“The airport is now visited daily by more than 10 thousand passengers. We believe this is an excellent outcome of the cooperation between us and our partners. This year we expect to achieve the record of the annual number of passengers as well – the new routes opened in autumn, totaling to eleven, should boost it”, said Art?ras Stankevi?ius, Director of Vilnius Airport.

In September the number of passengers will further increase due to new directions opened by airBaltic and Wizz Air companies. The Latvian company already operates flights from Vilnius to Brussels, Stockholm, Helsinki, Paris and Berlin, while next week Wizz Air is going to start flights to Billund, Munich (Memmingen), Stockholm, Kiev and Glasgow. The Scandinavian airline SAS will expand the map of its directions in the end of October, offering flights to Oslo.

The estimated capital’s airport throughput capacity reaches 3.5 million people. This year over 3 million passengers are already expected here. In order to conveniently serve more passengers, Lithuanian Airports require substantial investments in infrastructure development.

Other air gates belonging to the network of Lithuanian Airports – Kaunas and Palanga – enjoyed an intensive summer as well. This August Kaunas Airport served 85 thousand passengers and reached the highest passenger flow since 2013. This year the most successful period for Palanga Airport was mid-summer when the airport served over 17 thousand passengers and achieved the record performance in July.