Successful recovery of aviation was overshadowed by the number of overflights decrease by half
2022 04 13This year the first two months were successful for aviation and Oro Navigacija recorded recovery of flight intensity to the pre-pandemic level. Nevertheless, the data of the Enterprise shows that in March the number of overflights within the airspace of the Republic of Lithuania decreased by 49 percent because of sanctions imposed upon the Russian Federation and closing the airspace of Lithuania for the airlines from this country due to the started by Russia in Ukraine.
During the first quarter of this year in comparison to the same period in 2021, the total number of flights in the airspace of Lithuania increased by 66 percent, as recorded in the data of Oro Navigacija. Within this period the Enterprise handled 39.1 thousand flights (whereas during the first quarter of 2021 – 23.6 thousand flights). Significant changes in the overflight statistics were caused by closing the airspace for Russian airlines, thus, in March the number of overflights decreased by almost a half in comparison to February.
“The impact of the sanction imposed upon Russian airlines upon the decrease of flight numbers in Lithuania was significant. Nevertheless, Oro Navigacija as well as the entire aviation sector of the country remains focused on the growth and return to the pre-pandemic level”, stated Chief Executive Officer of state enterprise Oro Navigacija Saulius Batavičius.
During the first three months this year the top three airlines within the airspace of Lithuania were Ryanair (4408 flights), Finnair (3182 flights) and AirBaltic (2847 flights).
During the first quarter this year the biggest number of aircraft took off and landed at Vilnius Airport. Air traffic controllers of this airport handled 7 thousand aircraft or 2.4 times more than during the same period last year. Kaunas airport handled more than 2 thousand aircraft (2.6 times more than last year), Palanga airport – 609 aircraft (3.3 times more than last year) and Šiauliai airport – 929 aircraft (almost 1.7 times more than last year).
The most intense air traffic was recorded on the 2nd of January, since on that day air traffic controllers handled 700 aircraft, which is 2.6 times more than on the same day last year.
Updated at: 2022-12-15 11:46:22
