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

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

based in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, 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, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. It operated scheduled and charter flights, provided cargo services and aircraft rental. Its main bases were

Kaunas International Airport Kaunas Airport () is List of the busiest airports in the Baltic states, the second-busiest civil airport in Lithuania after Vilnius Airport and the fourth-busiest in the Baltic states. The airport is located in the central part of the country, ...

(KUN) and

Palanga International Airport Palanga International Airport ( ) is a regional international airport located near the resort town Palanga at the Baltic Sea. It is the third largest airport in Lithuania and focuses on short and mid-range routes to European destinations. It ser ...

(PLQ).

History

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

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (, ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; , , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its hub being Sheremetyevo Interna ...

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 city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. 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. 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 (geniti ...

, 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 oth ...

and

Yakovlev Yak-40 The Yakovlev Yak-40 (; NATO reporting name: Codling) is a regional jet designed in Soviet Union by Yakovlev. The trijet's maiden flight was in 1966, and it was in production from 1967 to 1981. It was introduced to service in 1968, with export mo ...

planes, later leased

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

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 The Boryspil International Airport () , also known as Kyiv Boryspil Airport, is an international airport in Boryspil, east of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. It is Ukraine's largest airport, serving 65% of its passenger air traffic, including al ...

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 Palanga (; ; ) is a resort town, resort city in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Palanga is the busiest and the largest summer resort in Lithuania and has sand, sandy beaches (18 km, 11 miles long and up to 300 metres, 10 ...

* International scheduled destinations: Billund,

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, sixth-largest city in Nordic countries, the Nordic region. Located on ...

and

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) 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 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

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