Bankruptcy proceedings start against Air Lituanica

On August 25, 2015, Vilnius Regional Court started bankruptcy proceedings against Air Lituanica.

The recently defunct airline is indirectly owned by the city of Vilnius, and was set up by the former municipality of the Lithuanian capital. 

According to the court’s spokeswoman, Vaida Bytaute, it has appointed Baklis, a local company, as the bankruptcy administrator and has given creditors 45 days to file their claims.

The ruling can be appealed to the Lithuanian Court of Appeals within 10 days.

The bankruptcy petition was filed by Air Lituanica CEO Nerijus Jukna and Vilniaus Silumos Tinklai, a municipal company to which the air carrier owes 2,143 million euros.

Jukna told the court that Air Lituanica had 1,999 million euros in assets and 8,244 million euros in overdue debts.

The court rejected Estonian Air's request to be brought into the proceedings as a third party.

Air Lituanica announced on May 22 this year, it was suspending operations. A week later it would file for bankruptcy.

According to recent data from the current Vilnius administration, Air Lituanica’s net loss in 2014 soared to 10,27 million euros, an almost two-fold increase from 5,19 million euros the previous year. 

In 2014, its annual revenues rose by 70.2 percent to 6.4 million euros.

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