Loftleidir Icelandic, a subsidiary of Icelandair Group, is now sole owner of the Latvian chartered flight operator Latcharter Airlines after having increased its stake in the airline from 55 percent to 100 percent. Loftleidir Icelandic acquired its initial stake in Latcharter in the summer of 2006. The Icelandic chartered flight operator said the move to acquire the remaining shares was part of a strategic move to reinforce its foothold in the Baltic and CIS markets. Latcharter Airlines, established in April 1992, posted profits of 1.06 million euros for 2006, a 21.4 percent rise on the year, while turnover grew 30.6 percent to 21.6 million euros.
Lithuanian movie theaters sold 7.3 million euros worth of tickets during the first nine months of 2007, up 53.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, reports the Cinema Industry Association. The number of moviegoers jumped 47.9 percent, year-on-year, to 2.36 million. The Simpsons Movie, an animated comedy film, topped the box office with sales of 642,310 euros audiences totalling 216,000 in the January-September period. Shrek the Third, a computer animated comedy, was the second best box-office performer with ticket sales of 450,720 euros and 157,300 moviegoers. Ratatouille, an animated film by Disney/Pixar, was third with ticket revenues of 367,820 euros and audiences reaching 129,200. Movie ticket sales are projected to reach 10.1 million euros this year. This follows a 95 percent surge in last year's ticket sales, to 7.3 million euros, with admissions up by 97.6 percent to 2.4 million viewers.
