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Aviation experts say last year’s pandemic hit the aviation sector so hard that it will take years to recover; the airlines will have to be attracted again to direct their planes to our country. However, the Transport Ministry admits that it does not yet have a plan on how to do it.
2019 was a record year for Lithuanian aviation: 6.5 million passengers traveled through 3 airports in the country, 62 thousand flights were made. The growth of these indicators also determined the talks about the development of the Vilnius airport, or even the construction of new air gates, but planes on the ground, and at the same time optimism, were downgraded by 2020 and the coronavirus pandemic. .
Last year, 1.8 million people traveled through airports. passengers, but as many as 850,000 traveled in January and February, when the pandemic had not yet started. Last year, there were almost 30,000 flights.
“In early 2020, those signs in January showed that 2020 should have been another record year, but after a month, in mid-February, everything basically changed,” says Aurimas Stikliūnas, Head of the Airport Aviation Services Department.
Most of the flights to and from Lithuania were operated by low-cost airlines Ryanair and Wizzair. Now Ryanair announces that it will not fly from Vilnius for at least the next few months, only the Kaunas-Dublin route remains.
Even before the pandemic, Lithuania kept trying to attract as many airlines as possible that could expand the country’s connections with other countries. He even applied tax refunds and paid subsidies for this. But last year it ended all work like a hand and now you have to start over.
“How to estimate the extent of that decrease here, it is necessary to imagine that somewhere the number has returned to the level of 2006-2007. I do not agree, perhaps, with the need to take and cancel all those investments here, because here, not only my forecast, but also the forecast of all analysts is that sooner or later those passenger flows will recover. Here the discussion is probably whether it will happen in three years, 4 or 5 “, says aviation expert Simonas Bartkus.
However, the Vice Minister of Transport and Communications admits that so far there is no plan to reactivate the aviation sector.
“Long-term solutions are needed here and we really have to prepare that action plan in order of priority, but if you ask about the specific measures that will be used, then the plan is currently being prepared,” says Agnė Vaiciukevičiūtė, Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications.
But airport officials are calm: They already have plans to attract airlines. Experts hope that the low-cost airlines, which had the most flights in Lithuania before the pandemic, will withdraw soon and return.
“They are probably the best prepared to face this crisis, they have probably accumulated more capital and on the other hand they are the most aggressive and the most programmed for development. It is likely that the aggressiveness of those companies will at least allow us to revive that offer, in the direction in which they flew at some level similar to what we had before this pandemic, ”said S. Bartkus.
According to the deputy minister, Lithuania’s goal is to have connections with strategically important directions: Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland and Israel. Although it is not said how to try to persuade airlines to direct their planes to Lithuania, it is not ruled out that it could be tax exemptions or even direct payment for flights.
“It will cost, but it will cost everyone, you know, as they say, if it is a big investment for all countries, including Lithuania, it is a reality and such a competitive environment,” says A. Vaiciukevičiūtė.
Although the owner of Oro Navigacija, who was removed this week, admits that it is difficult to talk about tax breaks. Taxes must be increased.
“According to the whole mechanism, we should significantly increase and increase the tariffs for landing flights to Lithuanian airports from next year. We will at least try not to increase them drastically. Our main objective, the main objective, is to keep those tariffs as low as possible. as attractive as possible for airlines, so that those ports are attractive, ”says Marius Beliūnas, former head of Oro Navigacijos.
It is not yet clear whether it will be safe to travel abroad this year.
“I’m not really a clairvoyant, and it is very difficult for me to say what to expect in the summer in different parts of the world, it is probably a topic on which I do not have much advice, apparently everyone has to judge by their imagination, assuming all the risk to be able to leave. Somewhere, for example, it will be impossible because there will be some additional restrictions somewhere, ”Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said.
Oh, and not everyone can fly.
“In the future, not only may a negative coronavirus test result be required, but there is a real debate at the cross-border level that perhaps in the future you should have, let’s say, a specific vaccine passport showing that you have been vaccinated. against a coronavirus pandemic “
Aviation experts say they are confident that a breakthrough can occur this summer and that Europeans, including Lithuanians, will start flying again, leading to increased vaccination.
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