How has Vilnius backfilled capacity since demise of Flylal

January this year saw the collapse of the Lithuanian national carrier, FlyLal. FlyLal was the major operator in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania operating some 64 weekly flights. (Schedules are compared from 23-30 Nov 2008 and the same dates for 2009).

FlyLal linked Vilnius to major European destinations. The carrier was operating Amsterdam, Budapest, Charles de Gaulle, Rome, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Kiev, London Gatwick, Madrid and Moscow Sheremetyevo. The collapse of the national airline left a huge void in the market. At one stage, there was speculation that the Lithuanian Government was seeking to establish its own carrier, however the airport has set on attracting new carriers with incentives and discounts to new airlines.

Vilnius has managed to backfill a number of the services that it lost, and by looking at the year on year comparison, it can be seen which carrier have stepped into the market.

• Finnair has added 16 new weekly services to Helsinki
• Air Baltic has added 21 new services, including a brand new link to Milan MXP
• Norwegian has added 5 weekly services to Oslo
• Aer Lingus added 10 new weekly flights to London Gatwick
• Regional carrier Skyways Express had added 10 weekly Stockholm (ARN flights)
• Lufthansa added 8 new increased frequencies.
• LOT, CSA and Austrian added 16, 15, and 8 weekly frequencies respectively to WAW, PRG and VIE
• Brussels Airlines has begun brand new scheduled flights to Brussels with 12 weekly frequencies.

Smaller Russian carriers such as UTAir and Donbassaero have all added Routes in Vilnius. In the previous twelve months 99 new frequencies have been added in Vilnius even subtracting the 64 routes added. Air Baltic is now the largest carrier in Vilnius with a market share of 40%.