Air Lituanica ceases operations

Air Lituanica (LT, Vilnius) has ceased its operations as of today. All passengers holding tickets until May 29 will be rebooked on Air Baltic (BT, Riga) while remaining passengers will either get a refund or be rebooked on Air Baltic as well if agreed.

The carrier commenced flights in July 2013 with an wet-leased EMB-170 from Estonian Air (OV, Tallinn Lennart Meri) before adding an EMB-175LR, LY-LTF (c/n 17000017) to its fleet a few weeks later. In late 2013, Estonian Air terminated the wet-lease contract and a commercial cooperation with the Vilnius-based airline claiming non payment leading to a legal dispute.

Air Lituanica again had two aircraft when it wet-leased a CRJ-200 from Cimber (QA, Sønderborg) from March 1, 2014. The regional jet was later replaced by a DOT - Danu oro transportas ATR72 in July 2014 and later by an ERJ-145 from bmi regional (BM, Aberdeen Dyce) in late August. In its last months of existence, Air Lituanica again wet-leased a twinjet from Estonian Air and returned the British operated aircraft.

Furthermore, Air Lituanica wet-leased an ATR42 from DOT from January 2015 onwards, meaning that the airline had three aircraft in the end of which just one was operated by itself.

Air Lituanica was founded by the Vilnius Municipality which also held a stake through Start Vilnius. Several other local companies and institutions had also invested in the project. The ongoing losses of the company that were partly born by the taxpayer led to several political disputes in Lithuania.

As of today, the Lithuanian airline operated flights from Vilnius to Amsterdam, Berlin Tegel, Billund, Brussels National, Hamburg Fuhlsbüttel, Munich, Paris CDG, Prague, Stockholm Bromma and Tallinn Lennart Meri. Air Litunica was the only scheduled airline in Lithunia leaving the Baltic country without an own scheduled airline now.

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