Statistics of Lithuanian Airports in May: While Other Airports Are Quickly Reaching the Pre-pandemic Results, Kaunas Airport Continues To Lead

In May this year, Lithuanian airports continued to rapidly approach the results registered before the pandemic. Last month, almost 528,000 passengers travelled through the country's airports and more than 5,000 flights were handled. For the second month in a row, Kaunas Airport's performance has already surpassed the results of 2019, which were considered to be a record-breaking year.

According to Aurimas Stikliūnas, head of aviation services at Lithuanian Airports, the summer season is expected to bring an even faster recovery of aviation traffic. He believes that the removal of pandemic restrictions, an attractive and wide range of destinations and the growing number of travelers on holiday will contribute to this. According to predictions of international aviation databases, Lithuania will continue to maintain its leading position in the Baltic States and Europe in terms of supply recovery in the third quarter of this year.

A. Stikliūnas also points out that in May this year it was possible to restore up to 85% of the total passenger traffic at Lithuanian airports compared to May 2019. According to him, in the same month of 2019, 620,000 passengers travelled through Lithuanian airports, more than 5.7 thousand flights were handled and 1.4 thousand tons of cargo were transported.

He adds that Kaunas Airport continues to surprise - for the second month in a row, it has outperformed the pre-pandemic indicators.

"Kaunas Airport has rapidly picked up its pace and does not seem to be stopping any time soon. In April and May, we have seen active growth at Kaunas Airport, even surpassing the records set in 2019. We expect this growth to continue," stated A. Stikliūnas.

In May this year, Kaunas Airport welcomed slightly more than 107,000 passengers, 1052 flights were handled, and almost 404 tons of cargo were transported. In the same period of 2019, slightly more than 102,000 passengers travelled to Kaunas Airport, 891 flights were handled and 277 tons of cargo were transported. In May 2021, Kaunas Airport handled just over 10,000 passengers and 439 flights, transporting almost 363 tons of cargo.

In May 2022, Vilnius Airport handled 395,000 passengers and more than 3,600 flights, and transported 1,315 tons of cargo. During the same period in 2019, Vilnius Airport handled slightly more than 488,000 passengers, almost 4,500 flights and transported more than 1,139 tons of cargo. Last year, Vilnius Airport handled almost 76,000 passengers, 1,600 flights and transported almost 1,192 tons of cargo.

Meanwhile, Palanga Airport has managed to restore about 85% of the pre-pandemic passenger traffic. In the fifth month of this year, 25 thousand passengers travelled through Palanga Airport, 353 flights were handled and 18 tons of cargo were transported. In the same period of 2019, more than 29,000 passengers travelled through the airport, 410 flights were handled and 0.1 tons of cargo was transported. In May last year, Palanga Airport handled almost 1.9 thousand passengers, 223 flights and 0.02 tons of cargo.

A. Stakliūnas adds, "We aim to continue to maintain the leading position in the Baltic region and Europe in terms of recovery and growth that we have secured in recent months. We continue to work consistently to achieve our goals and are in constant negotiations with airlines to offer an even wider choice of destinations to our passengers and to move even faster towards a full recovery,".