Minister of Communications Marius Skoudis announces that from May of this year, there will be direct flights Vilnius-Lisbon and Vilnius-Hamburg twice a week. According to "airbalticVice President Mantas Vrubliauskas, the first flights will start on May 2 and 4, ticket sales have already started.
"Today we are taking another important step in expanding Lithuania's accessibility and flight map! After Lithuanian airports have signed long-term investment contracts, since May "Airbaltic will connect Vilnius with Lisbon and Hamburg with at least two weekly flights," M. Skuodis shared on his Facebook account on Tuesday.
The minister emphasized that the flights will be operated throughout the year - both during the summer and winter aviation season.
Also, according to him, flights in these directions will take place "for more than one and more than a few years".
"The contracts signed by the airports and the Airbaltic company are really long-term," he asserted at the presentation of the new destinations on Tuesday.
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Also, M. Skuodis mentioned that the emergence of these directions confirms that the "risk sharing" flight promotion model and partners' contributions work, are attractive to companies and allow to increase the reach of Lithuania.
M. Vrubliauskas mentioned that "Airbaltic" used this incentive model with Lithuanian Airports (LOU) and concluded a contract according to which the company's losses will be compensated until the new routes become profitable. Then, according to him, part of the profit will be given to LOU.
"It is very important to note that this is a joint project with Lithuanian airports, a risk sharing model. This is the first time we have such a project and we are happy with it, because it actually helps to avoid the risk that occurs in the first few years of starting a project", explained M. Vrubliauskas.
"On the other hand, when the route becomes profitable, we are committed to returning part of that profit to Lithuanian airports," he added.
