newstodate.aero
Aug 20, 2009 (newstodate): Lithuania's Kaunas Airport is determined to secure its role in coming master plan for the airport infrastructure of the county, and considers itself a complimentary to the capital airport at Vilnius.
-A state must have a capital airport to serve the needs of its government, its business circles and incoming tourists on legacy carriers. In this perspective, the role of Kaunas Airport is to provide facilities to serve the low-cost carriers supplementing the offerings of the legacy carriers at the capital airport, says Arijandas Sliupas, Kaunas Airport general director.
-We are keen to position ourselves on the basis of quality in service, low-cost traffic and cargo operations, but of course times are difficult with a drop by 22 percent in the country's GDP during this year's Q2. This has a direct bearing on the volume of passenger traffic, and right now there is little hope for developing the cargo traffic either. But still July 2009 was another record month at Kanuas Airport with 42,000 passengers handled!
-Luckily, we are noting that the volume handled at Kaunas by TNT and UPS is now back to 2008-levels, indicating that there is indeed a local cargo demand in the market. Transfer cargo to Russia is basically driven by political decision, and there is little we can do to change the game.
-In the current situation, the capacity of the three airports in Lithuania - Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga - is certainly not fully utilized, and this is of course a problem. But designing a master plan for the future airport infrastructure is a long-term issue, and we are confident that all elements will be taken into consideration before a final solution is made, says Mr Sliupas.
-A state must have a capital airport to serve the needs of its government, its business circles and incoming tourists on legacy carriers. In this perspective, the role of Kaunas Airport is to provide facilities to serve the low-cost carriers supplementing the offerings of the legacy carriers at the capital airport, says Arijandas Sliupas, Kaunas Airport general director.
-We are keen to position ourselves on the basis of quality in service, low-cost traffic and cargo operations, but of course times are difficult with a drop by 22 percent in the country's GDP during this year's Q2. This has a direct bearing on the volume of passenger traffic, and right now there is little hope for developing the cargo traffic either. But still July 2009 was another record month at Kanuas Airport with 42,000 passengers handled!
-Luckily, we are noting that the volume handled at Kaunas by TNT and UPS is now back to 2008-levels, indicating that there is indeed a local cargo demand in the market. Transfer cargo to Russia is basically driven by political decision, and there is little we can do to change the game.
-In the current situation, the capacity of the three airports in Lithuania - Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga - is certainly not fully utilized, and this is of course a problem. But designing a master plan for the future airport infrastructure is a long-term issue, and we are confident that all elements will be taken into consideration before a final solution is made, says Mr Sliupas.