Vilnius Airport

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search
Vilnius International Airport
Tarptautinis Vilniaus oro uostas
250px
Vilnius International Airport.jpg
IATA: VNOICAO: EYVI
Summary
Airport type Public
Owner Lithuanian government
Operator State Enterprise Tarptautinis Vilniaus oro uostas
Serves Vilnius, Lithuania
Hub for
Elevation AMSL 646 ft / 197 m
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Website vilnius-airport.lt
Map
VNO is located in Vilnius
VNO
VNO
Location within the city
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
02/20 2,515 8,250 Asphalt/Concrete
Statistics (2014)
Number of Passengers 2,942,670
Aircraft movements 37,254
Source: Lithuanian AIP at EUROCONTROL[1]

Vilnius Airport (IATA: VNOICAO: EYVI) (Lithuanian: Vilniaus oro uostas) is the international airport of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. It is located 5.9 km (3.7 mi) south[1] of the city. It is the largest of the four commercial airports in Lithuania by passenger traffic. Today, Vilnius Airport is one of the fastest-growing airports in Europe. With one runway and an estimated 2.9 million passengers a year, Vilnius International Airport serves as a base for Wizz Air and Small Planet Airlines, focus city to Ryanair.

History

Early years

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. The present-day Vilnius International Airport is a state owned enterprise under the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The airport began operations on 17 August 1932 as Wilno – Porubanek, Porubanek was the name of the neighbouring village which today is part of the Kirtimai district of Vilnius. Before the II World War it operated the then domestic route between Vilnius and Warsaw as well as international route to Riga. Since 15 April 1939 it inaugurated new route – to Kaunas.

Recent developments

Lithuanian Airlines (branded later as FlyLAL) was established as the Lithuanian flag carrier following independence in 1991 and inherited the Vilnius-based Aeroflot fleet of Tupolev Tu-134, Yakovlev Yak-40, Yak-42 and Antonov An-24, An-26 aircraft, but rapidly replaced these Soviet-era aircraft types with modern Boeing 737 and Boeing 757 jets and Saab 340, Saab 2000 turboprops. Operations were suspended effective 17 January 2009 as a result of growing financial difficulties. With the collapse of flyLAL, the airport lost its scheduled services to Amsterdam, Budapest, Istanbul, Madrid and Tbilisi. flyLAL used to operate to Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Milan and Paris in competition with Aer Lingus, airBaltic or Lufthansa.

AirBaltic, the national airline of Latvia and under Scandinavian Airlines part-ownership, opened up a second base at Vilnius in 2004 to complement its Riga operation and became the largest carrier at Vilnius, using Boeing 737 jets and Fokker F50 turboprops. At one point, airBaltic operated to 19 destinations from Vilnius but, in 2009, the network covered only three destinations served by two aircraft based at Vilnius.

Vilnius Airport is the main hub for Small Planet Airlines, Grand Cru Airlines, and Aviavilsa and a base for Wizz Air. It used to be a main hub for Star1 Airlines until their end of operations in September 2010 and Aurela until Aurela had lost its flight license. The airport was a secondary hub for airBaltic, Estonian Air and Skyways Express until they closed the bases in Vilnius.

On 30 June 2013 Air Lituanica also began its flights from the Vilnius Airport and established its base there serving several European cities. However, by 22 May 2015 the airline shut down all operations as well.[2]

Terminal

The airport is notable for its 1950s arrivals terminal building.[citation needed] It is a standard Soviet airport terminal design, originally intended for an airport with up to 20 aircraft movements per day. On the outside, it is decorated with sculptures of soldiers, workers and aviators, while inside walls and ceilings feature wreaths, bay leaves and stars, and until early 1990s, the Soviet hammer and sickle, typical decor for Soviet public buildings of early post-war years.

In November 2007, the new 1,000 m2 (11,000 sq ft) terminal building was opened for operations which improved the capacity and facilities of the airport and complies with the requirements of the Schengen agreement.[citation needed] The passenger throughput of the terminal increased, passenger service quality was improved and more stringent aviation security measures were implemented. The new area of the renovated passenger terminal now reaches 3,462 m2 (37,260 sq ft). It is equipped with 6 passenger boarding bridges, modern passenger check-in equipment, new travel value and duty-free shops were opened as well as business lounge and VIP Lounge.

Passenger

Airlines Destinations
Aeroflot Moscow-Sheremetyevo
airBaltic Amsterdam, Berlin-Tegel, Brussels, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Riga, Stockholm-Arlanda, Tallinn (begins 18 April 2016)[3]
Austrian Airlines Vienna
Brussels Airlines Brussels
Belavia Minsk-National
Finnair
operated by Nordic Regional Airlines
Helsinki
Germania Flug Zurich (begins 2 June 2016)[4]
LOT Polish Airlines Warsaw-Chopin
Lufthansa Frankfurt
Nordic Aviation[5]
operated by NextJet
Tallinn
Norwegian Air Shuttle Oslo-Gardermoen
Seasonal: Stockholm-Arlanda
RusLine Saint Petersburg
Ryanair Barcelona, Beauvais,[6] Bergamo, Birmingham (begins 29 March 2016),[7] Bremen, Charleroi, Dublin, Hahn, Liverpool, London-Luton (begins 2 April 2016),[8] London-Stansted, Madrid, Moss, Rome-Ciampino
Seasonal: Chania
Scandinavian Airlines Oslo-Gardermoen[9]
Scandinavian Airlines
operated by Cimber
Copenhagen
Scandinavian Airlines
operated by Braathens Regional
Stockholm-Arlanda
Small Planet Airlines Seasonal charter: Antalya, Barcelona, Bergamo, Bodrum, Dalaman, Funchal, Gazipasa, Geneva,[10] Heraklion, Hurghada, Lamezia Terme,[11] Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Malaga, Marsa Alam, Monastir, Mostar, Rhodes, Palma de Mallorca, Salzburg, Sharm el-Sheikh, Taba, Tenerife-South, Nice, Enfidha, Rijeka, Dubai, Agadir, Faro, Burgas, Varna, Kos, Dalaman, Bodrum, Catania, Larnaca, Geneva, Cagliari
SmartLynx Airlines Seasonal charter: Bilbao, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Rijeka, Varna, Faro
Sun D'Or
operated by El Al
Seasonal: Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Turkish Airlines Istanbul-Atatürk
Ukraine International Airlines Kiev-Boryspil
Seasonal: Odessa[12]
UTair Aviation Moscow-Vnukovo
Vueling Seasonal: Barcelona (begins 28 June 2016)[13]
Wizz Air Ålesund, Barcelona, Beauvais, Belfast-International, Bergamo, Bergen, Billund, Doncaster/Sheffield, Dortmund, Eindhoven, Hahn, Glasgow, Kiev-Zhuliany, Kutaisi, Larnaca, London-Luton, Malmö, Memmingen, Rome-Fiumicino, Sandefjord, Stavanger, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion
Seasonal: Corfu
WOW air Seasonal: Reykjavík-Keflavík

Cargo

Airlines Destinations
DHL Aviation
operated by Cargoair
Leipzig/Halle, Riga
Transaviabaltika Minsk-National

Statistics

Traffic figures

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Year Passengers Change Flights Cargo (tonnes)
2006 1,451,468 +13.2% 29,347 5,566
2007 1,717,222 +18.3% 32,840 5,780
2008 2,048,439 +19.3% 37,839 5,717
2009 1,308,632 −36.1%
2010 1,373,859 +4.98% 26,106
2011 1,712,467 +24.7% 27,703
2012 2,208,099 +28.94% 29,995
2013 2,661,869 +20.55% 32,778
2014 2,942,670 +10,55% 37,254 8,023
2015 3,336,084 +13,37% 39,289 8,188

Ground transportation

Train

Vilnius airport railway station

Direct train services between Vilnius Airport Railway Station (referred to as "Oro uostas" in the schedules) and the central station of Vilnius were started in October 2008. Distance from the Airport to the Central Railway Station is 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi), the journey takes 7 minutes. This is the fastest way to reach the Airport from the city center.

Bus

The bus connecting Vilnius airport with Vilnius City Centre.

The direct intercity express services operate from the Airport to Klaipėda and Riga (via Panevėžys and Bauska).

Incidents and accidents

  • Scandinavian Airlines Flight 2748, operated with Dash-8-400 (LN-RDS) with 48 passengers and 4 crew members, took off from Copenhagen Airport on 12 September 2007. It was heading to Palanga, Lithuania, but was diverted to Vilnius Airport (better suited for an emergency landing) when landing gear problems were discovered before landing. Upon touchdown, the right landing gear collapsed. All passengers and crew were evacuated safely. The local officials at the Vilnius International Airport noted that this was the most serious incident in recent years. This accident, along with the Aalborg accident just days earlier, caused all SAS Dash 8–400 planes to be grounded until the beginning of October.

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. https://www.airbaltic.com/en-ZZ/index
  4. https://www.germania.ch/
  5. http://www.nagroup.ee/en/
  6. https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/timetable
  7. https://www.bookryanair.com/SkySales/Booking.aspx?culture=en-GB&lc=en-GB#Select
  8. https://www.ryanair.com/gb/en/
  9. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons