newstodate.aero
Feb 02, 2016 (newstodate): Lithuania's second-largest international airport at Kaunas may have an entirely new role to play in the years ahead, at least in the thinking of Gediminas Almantas, Lithuanian Airports CEO.
-The updated infrastructure of Kaunas Airport has rich potentials for utilization, and if needed we are ready to invest further in the development of the airport, says Mr Almantas.
-One scenario is to develop Kaunas into a hub for future low-cost long-haul traffic, building on the airport's favorable geographical location - even better than that of for instance Helsinki, which will offer competitive short flying times between Europe and a range of Eastern markets such as Dubai, Israel and Georgia, the Middle East and Asia.
-On one hand, Kaunas has ample capacity and abundance of apron area, and we would be ready to expand the current passenger terminal facilities to cope with a rise in traffic. On the other hand, we are now seeing a new generation of commercial aircraft coming into the fleets, providing more long-range and fuel-efficient capacity to develop long-haul low-cost operations.
-In Lithuania we are also fully ready to grant carriers with 5th freedom rights as we do not have any national carrier's interests to protect.
-We are not currently in talks with airlines on this scenario, but we have aired the thoughts to Ryanair and other carriers. I expect, however, this to develop over the next three to five years and consider this a very attractive and realistic scenario, says Mr Almantas.
-The updated infrastructure of Kaunas Airport has rich potentials for utilization, and if needed we are ready to invest further in the development of the airport, says Mr Almantas.
-One scenario is to develop Kaunas into a hub for future low-cost long-haul traffic, building on the airport's favorable geographical location - even better than that of for instance Helsinki, which will offer competitive short flying times between Europe and a range of Eastern markets such as Dubai, Israel and Georgia, the Middle East and Asia.
-On one hand, Kaunas has ample capacity and abundance of apron area, and we would be ready to expand the current passenger terminal facilities to cope with a rise in traffic. On the other hand, we are now seeing a new generation of commercial aircraft coming into the fleets, providing more long-range and fuel-efficient capacity to develop long-haul low-cost operations.
-In Lithuania we are also fully ready to grant carriers with 5th freedom rights as we do not have any national carrier's interests to protect.
-We are not currently in talks with airlines on this scenario, but we have aired the thoughts to Ryanair and other carriers. I expect, however, this to develop over the next three to five years and consider this a very attractive and realistic scenario, says Mr Almantas.