newstodate.aero
May 25, 2011 (newstodate): Plans for establishing a new airline in Lithuania are still alive but remain a well-kept secret when it comes to details.
The plans were first vented at a press conference in Vilnius in September 2010, driven by Bertolt Flick, airBaltic CEO, president and majority-owner through the investment company Baltic Aviation System, and Kristian Kirchheiner, former SAS executive and airBaltic's second president and CEO.
Since then little has been heard of the project.
At the recent North Hub Riga Conference, Mr Flick however confirmed to newstodate that the project is still being worked upon.
-We have had to acknowledge that the process is far more complex than initially anticipated, and it has required longer time to mature than expected, said Mr Flick.
According to Mr Flick, an announcement on the formation of the new carrier will be made by October 2011, and the start-up has now been revised to some time in 2012.
The original plan announced last year was to start operations from 2011 from Vilnius to Dublin, London, Paris, Munich, Rome, Warsaw, Istanbul and Moscow with a fleet initially comprising three Boeing 737 aircraft.
From 2012 new destinations were to include St Petersburg, Helsinki, Berlin, Budapest, Kiev, Copenhagen, Gdansk, Oslo, from 2013 Brussels, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, Milan, and Malaga, and from 2015 Hamburg.
The fleet should gradually grow to comprise five Boeing 737 and five Bombardier Q400 aircraft.
The plans were first vented at a press conference in Vilnius in September 2010, driven by Bertolt Flick, airBaltic CEO, president and majority-owner through the investment company Baltic Aviation System, and Kristian Kirchheiner, former SAS executive and airBaltic's second president and CEO.
Since then little has been heard of the project.
At the recent North Hub Riga Conference, Mr Flick however confirmed to newstodate that the project is still being worked upon.
-We have had to acknowledge that the process is far more complex than initially anticipated, and it has required longer time to mature than expected, said Mr Flick.
According to Mr Flick, an announcement on the formation of the new carrier will be made by October 2011, and the start-up has now been revised to some time in 2012.
The original plan announced last year was to start operations from 2011 from Vilnius to Dublin, London, Paris, Munich, Rome, Warsaw, Istanbul and Moscow with a fleet initially comprising three Boeing 737 aircraft.
From 2012 new destinations were to include St Petersburg, Helsinki, Berlin, Budapest, Kiev, Copenhagen, Gdansk, Oslo, from 2013 Brussels, Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, Milan, and Malaga, and from 2015 Hamburg.
The fleet should gradually grow to comprise five Boeing 737 and five Bombardier Q400 aircraft.