VILNIUS - Reportedly interested in launching flights to Vilnius and Kaunas, a top Ryanair official was due to arrive in the Lithuanian capital on Oct. 1 to begin negotiations with civil leaders.
The Baltic News Service reported that Bernard Berger, a senior executive at Ryanair, was scheduled to arrive in Vilnius on Oct. 1 to discuss opportunities with Mayor Arturas Zuokas and Erikas Tamasauskas, deputy mayor of Kaunas.
"The meeting between the Ryanair representative and the city officials of Vilnius and Kaunas is being arranged at the company's initiative," Birure Vainiene, deputy mayor of Vilnius, was quoted as saying. She said that representatives from the airports of Vilnius and Kaunas would not participate in the meeting.
Earlier this year Ryanair was reportedly interested in launching a flight from Vilnius, but eventually declined because of high airport taxes. However, after this summer's announcement that Ryanair was to begin flights to and from Riga on Oct. 31, Estonian and Lithuanian politicians and industry officials have had a change of heart.
"We will appeal to the government, the Transport Ministry about lower airport fees in the nearest future," Zuokas was quoted as saying.
News about the discount airline's possible arrival in Lithuania comes at a time when Lithuania's national carrier, Lietuvos Avialinijos (Lithuanian Airlines), is still struggling financially and trying to end the year in the black.
The Baltics' last state-owned airline posted losses of 3.5 million litas (1 million euros) for the first half of 2004, down from losses of 3.7 million litas over the same period last year. Operating revenues reached 94.5 million litas for the six-month period, up by 2.7 percent year-on-year.
The company has a target net earning of 4.8 million litas for 2004 before the revaluation of long-term tangible assets.
CEO Vidas Zvinys said that the main factors influencing first-half performance results were the company's intensive business expansion, surging oil prices on the world's markets and low passenger numbers in the first quarter.
LAL carried a total of 163,200 passengers on regular flights during the first half of the year, a 23.9 percent increase year-on-year.
Meanwhile, a Transport Ministry working group issued recommendations last week that Vilnius International Airport expand and modernize in the next 10 years, and only then should the construction of a new airport begin.
"Members of the group believe that the expansion of Vilnius Airport could continue until 2015. In the meantime, the possibility of building a new airport in the 2020 - 2025 period could be discussed," Valdemaras Salauskas, the Transport Ministry's secretary, was quoted as saying.
He added that one of the expansion options for Vilnius Airport would be building a new runway parallel to the existing one.
The group analyzed three main options for expanding Lithuania's airports: investing in the current Vilnius or Kaunas airports or building a new airport close to Elektrenai, which is approximately halfway between the capital and the country's second-largest city.
Vilnius International Airport has recently launched a 50 million litas project to build a new terminal for passengers arriving from countries outside the Schengen area. The project, which is now in its designing stage, is to be completed in autumn 2006.
