“I have to admit, these are not the best times for our airport train. The passengers’ numbers dropped from 4500 per month to 3000. But we don’t create a tragedy from this fact. This drop didn’t happen without a reason – flyLAL, which carried 34% flights in Vilnius airport, terminated their operation on January and even prior that, on December, numbers of their flights were decreasing significantly”, - said to airrail NEWS Liudmila Zumeriene, Secretary of the Ministry of Transport & Communication of Lithuania. According to her, airBaltic also decreased their regular flights to Vilnius.

“We could predict that the whole winter will be like this, only slight growth from where we are now is possible, though the summer schedules should bring stability in the market. We expect the numbers on our Vilnius airport train should increase naturally as there is no other transport to the city that could guarantee 7 min. journey. The price is also very attractive to the travelers – only 2.5 litas”, Zumeriene added.

The Secretary believes that the Vilnius airport rail link will continue operating as it already integrated to the local and regional transport network.

Facts Only

• Vilnius Airport rail link started operating 2nd October 2008.
• 4 km journey between Vilnius airport and the city takes 7 minutes.
• Vilnius Airport served more than 2 million passengers in 2008.
• Lithuanian air carrier flyLAL stopped its operations on 17th January 2009.
• In 2008 flyLAL carried 847 thousand passengers, 720 thousand of which were flying through Vilnius airport.

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