Air Lithuania ( lt, Aviakompanija Lietuva, literally: ''Air Company "Lithuania"'') was a regional

airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...

based in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Traka ...

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. It operated scheduled and charter flights, provided cargo services and aircraft rental. Its main bases were Kaunas International Airport (KUN) and Palanga International Airport (PLQ).

History

Air Lithuania was established as a state-owned company on 13 September 1991 after the reorganization of

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (russian: ПАО "Аэрофло́т — Росси́йские авиали́нии", ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; russian: Аэрофлот, , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. The ...

division in Kaunas. It started charter flights on 15 February 1992. The first scheduled flight was in February 1993 from Kaunas to

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

. On 17 July 1995, it was reorganized from a state-owned company into a Joint Stock Company. In August 1997, the shares of Air Lithuania were transferred to the parent company

Lithuanian Airlines flyLAL (also known as Lithuanian Airlines and LAL) was the national airline of Lithuania, based in Vilnius. It operated domestic and international scheduled services from its main base at Vilnius International Airport.Flight International 3 Apri ...

. In May 2004, Air Lithuania was bought by Arijus, a Lithuanian transport and logistics company, and subsequently sold to World Aviation Capital, a British company. At the time of the sale, the company had debts of approximately 20 million

litas The Lithuanian litas ( ISO currency code LTL, symbolized as Lt; plural ''litai'' (nominative) or ''litų'' (genitive) was the currency of Lithuania, until 1 January 2015, when it was replaced by the euro. It was divided into 100 centų (gen ...

, while its annual gross income reached 40 million in 2004. The airline filed for bankruptcy in November 2005. It was the first airline bankruptcy in Lithuania. In 2004 the airline carried 54,500 passengers (24% increase over 2003). At first, the airline used

Tupolev Tu-134 The Tupolev Tu-134 (NATO reporting name: Crusty) is a twin-engined, narrow-body jet airliner built in the Soviet Union for short and medium-haul routes from 1966 to 1989. The original version featured a glazed-nose design and, like certain ot ...

and

Yakovlev Yak-40 The Yakovlev Yak-40 (russian: Яковлев Як-40; NATO reporting name: Codling) is a regional jet designed by Yakovlev. The trijet's maiden flight was in 1966, and it was in production from 1967 to 1981. Introduced in September 1968, the ...

planes, later leased

ATR 42 The ATR 42 is a regional airliner produced by Franco-Italian manufacturer ATR, with final assembly in Toulouse, France. On 4 November 1981, the aircraft was launched with ATR, as a joint venture between French Aérospatiale (now Airbus) and ...

Accidents and incidents

In December 2004, the Air Lithuania ATR 42 operating for Lithuanian Airlines, touched tree tops and allegedly almost crashed at the approach to the

Boryspil International Airport Boryspil International Airport ( uk, Міжнародний аеропорт «Бориспіль») is an international airport in Boryspil, east of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It is Ukraine's largest airport, serving 65% of its passenger ...

in Kyiv, Ukraine .

Services

Air Lithuania operated the following services (as of October 2004):AB "Aviakompanija Lietuva" vasaros sezono tvarkaraštis
(archive) * Domestic scheduled destinations:

and Palanga * International scheduled destinations: Billund,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal popul ...

and

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

References

External links

Air Lithuania
(archive) Former Aeroflot divisions Defunct airlines of Lithuania Airlines established in 1991 Airlines disestablished in 2005 Aviation in Kaunas Lithuanian companies established in 1991 {{Lithuania-company-stub