2024-08-03 19:22:11
Today, regular routes connect Palanga with Copenhagen (Denmark), Amsterdam (Netherlands), London (United Kingdom), Oslo (Norway), Riga (Latvia) and Dublin (Ireland). – to 43 cities.
Therefore, traveling residents of Western Lithuania are usually forced to go to the capital or Kaunas, which alone wastes a lot of precious time – after all, driving to Vilnius and back from Klaipėda takes as much as a working day.
In order for more planes to fly from Palanga, the municipalities of the Western Lithuania region have already prepared an agreement, according to which central government institutions would also help attract new routes.
S. Bartkus, head of the state-owned company Lithuanian Airports (LTOU), says that this is a good initiative, and the investments in Palanga Airport show that it is being developed in the future.
The possibility that it would be possible to fly from Palanga to the most popular resorts among Lithuanians is not ruled out, although the authorities would probably contribute to outbound tourism.
– Mr. Simon, what do you think – or can you justify it with data – how much is the potential of the current Palanga airport currently being used? Maybe it’s already beyond capacity?
– Generally speaking, Palanga Airport (PLQ) is currently the fastest growing airport in the Baltic countries in terms of passenger traffic. This year, in the first six months, the airport has already served 164,000 passengers. passengers, that is 5 percent. more than in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Its possible future development is also discussed in the long-term development plans prepared by foreign experts for all airports in our network, the plans cover several decades.
However, I want to emphasize that the possible development of this airport terminal is directly related to the number of passengers served – seeing that passenger flows continue to grow, we will take appropriate development decisions in time.
The management and development of airports is based on the management of peak periods – we understand that there may not be a single flight for a considerable part of the day, which is common not only for Palanga, but also for all similar European regional airports, but we must be ready to receive passengers at the time when there are several flights at the same hour.
Here it is important to remind you that a very important project, which simultaneously shows our plans for the future of this airport, is the complex reconstruction of the entire takeoff, taxiway and platform carried out a few years ago.
These were necessary investments for the successful and safe operation of the airport in the long term, we plan that the investment should pay off in 10-15 years.
I would also like to mention that the project was implemented during the pandemic, so the great political support of the Ministry of Transport and the municipalities of Western Lithuania was critically important.
– How do you assess the goals set by the LTOU in the agreement between the regional municipalities on the promotion of flights – to create a three-year development and expansion plan for Palanga Airport, including additional measures for attracting airlines and discount systems for airport fees?
– We are very happy that the municipalities of Western Lithuania are moving towards a consensus and taking the lead, combining their capacities and planning to contribute to the promotion of air transport and increasing the awareness of the region.
This is a really meaningful step that will contribute to the economic growth of the region in every sense. It is very important that attracting new flights or maintaining existing ones is seen as a common interest of the region and not just of individual organizations.
Generally speaking, this is a model tested in Lithuania, which is also applied in other agreements, it works efficiently and brings benefits, because the airlines feel a real contribution from the local authorities, that the route being implemented or the routes planned to be launched are necessary.
At the end of the day, everyone’s main goal is to fill the planes on all routes: this requires a joint contribution to flight promotion, publicity, tourist attraction, business promotion and other areas. A similar agreement was signed almost a year ago between Vilnius city municipality and two ministries.
Perhaps the most important recent news for the Klaipėda region is the regular flight between Palanga and Amsterdam, which greatly contributes to ensuring accessibility, business needs and general travel opportunities.
Amsterdam airport is one of the largest in Europe, so Western Lithuania can now reach almost the whole world with just one transfer. It is important to mention that the flights will also take place during the winter season, which creates new opportunities and reduces the strongly felt seasonality throughout the region.
As for the possibilities, to add additional directions that are important to the Klaipėda region to the list of priority directions – we have already had preliminary talks with the municipalities and the regional association, and we will make the final decisions jointly when the agreement between the municipalities and the aforementioned ministries is signed.
– What are the additional means of attracting airlines to Palanga, what discounts? I wonder if LTOU currently has such tools, does it have the possibility to apply them, or are they theoretical possibilities – what could at least be considered?
– At the moment, we are applying many promotion measures for airlines in the network of Lithuanian airports.
These are certainly not theoretical, but actual one-year incentive programs in our network – for example, our network incentive program allows airlines to receive discounts at all airports if they choose to fly to several airports.
In other words, we encourage airlines that operate, say, several dozen flights per week in Vilnius to open several flights per week at Palanga airport as well. Such is the synergy and benefit created by the airport network.
I think that, in developing the geography of Palanga airport, the main candidates are those companies that already fly to Vilnius and Kaunas. Airlines are also encouraged to open new routes and increase the number of regularly operated flights.
The promotion program currently in force also provides for the promotion of charter flights to and from PLQ.
Last year, together with the Ministry of Transport, with the help of incentive programs, we invested about 700 thousand in the development of Palanga airport routes. euros, this year we plan to invest more than 1 million euros.
– How much can such measures cost the state? For example, a flight from Palanga to Warsaw (Poland) or Hamburg (Germany)?
– It is difficult to accurately name the amount of investment that would be universal in all cases, because in the case of each route, many factors operate and are analyzed, which determine the final budget required to start or maintain a flight route.
It is clear that the directions you have named are among the most realistic to achieve direct communication. To them I would add even larger German airports, which are also aviation centers for connecting flights – for example, Frankfurt or Munich.
– The agreement also mentions the possibility of attracting more charter flights. What kind of flights could these be to Palanga: cargo transportation by air or tourism, business directions?
– When developing regional airports, a package of various types of flights is extremely important. Currently, direct flights from Palanga to Copenhagen, Riga, Amsterdam are more oriented towards the needs of business travelers and incoming tourism, direct flights to Oslo, London or Dublin – more towards Lithuanian diasporas in those countries. This, of course, does not mean that those flights are used only by passengers of a specific segment.
Naturally, we do not have direct flight routes from Palanga aimed at vacationers. Since the routes to Southern Europe would be more intended for departing tourists, usually the local self-government and other local organizations are naturally not inclined to contribute and invest in them, but it seems to me that the emergence of such a route would contribute to the formation of the habit of flying from Palanga. This is still an open question.
– According to Klaipėda’s business community, the Palanga-Hamburg direct flight is the most preferred direction. In your opinion, under what conditions could it be implemented?
– We have been negotiating with some carriers for several years about the appearance of this route at Palanga Airport – it’s no secret that this flight existed 20 years ago.
However, the situation has changed – in those days it was common to fly in 40-seater planes, currently the aviation industry has turned to the use of large, 140-200-seater planes, which requires a constant flow of passengers of another level.
We have a flight to Hamburg at the capital’s airport, which became permanent only in 2024, and it takes a lot of effort to establish it.
However, with the strengthening of economic and military ties between Lithuania and Germany, we will continue to make efforts to make Hamburg appear on the flight map of Palanga Airport, so we continue to hold talks with potential carriers.
– What are the main factors hindering the development of an airport the size of Palanga?
– The number of passengers and the ability to pay for a ticket are the main factors that influence the decision of airlines to open a route. From the first flight, the filling of airplane seats must reach a certain minimum level, so that the airlines at least start to consider maintaining the route.
This is especially sensitive now, when there is a severe shortage of aircraft worldwide and airlines are trying to deploy all they have where the risk is lowest and the likely profit is highest. Therefore, the main factor inhibiting the development is the size of the market.
It is good that the airlines see the potential of the region, and not only the appearance of flights is evidence of this attention to Palanga airport – for example, the Scandinavian airline SAS switches to larger aircraft in Copenhagen-Palanga flights, which means that there are a quarter more opportunities for passengers to reach Western Lithuania.
– If LTOU, based on current data, including financial flows, would evaluate Palanga Airport as a company unit – what would its results look like? Isn’t that a burden on the company?
– This July we just celebrated the decade of the merger of Lithuanian airports. A decade ago, after merging the country’s three airports into one company, centralizing some functions and optimizing certain processes, it was possible to achieve much better financial results.
It is important to understand that the state, having made the decision to have three airports, pursues not only financial efficiency, but also other important goals.
In Lithuania, as in Finland “Finavia”, in Norway “Avinor”, in Sweden “Swedavia”, Lithuanian airports operate as an airport network, simultaneously exploiting both the synergy of all its airports and the advantages of individual airports.
– Let’s try to put ourselves in the shoes of a resident of Western Lithuania who likes to travel: does he dream that one day it will be possible to fly directly from Palanga to the resorts of Southern Europe or comfortably to New York? Is this a real dream for the next decade?
– If you want to fly to New York, it doesn’t matter if you live in Hamburg, Gothenburg, Riga or Klaipėda, you will need to use one of the major European flight centers – an airport – for a transfer. This makes convenient connections to aviation hubs particularly important.
If you go to the websites of the largest US airline “Delta” or the largest French airline “Air France”, you will already find the opportunity to fly to Palanga from any point in the world – this provides opportunities with strategically important flights to Amsterdam or Copenhagen.
The goal would not only be to maintain this flight, but to develop other, strategic partnerships.
2024-08-03 19:22:11