Higher traffic, but rising losses (140 words)

Published: 11/13/2000

Lithuanian Airlines (LAL) has reported an increase in passengers carried of 21.7% to 254,000 passengers between January-October 2000 scheduled routes the company recorded 202,000 passengers in January-October 2000, up 20.2% year-on-year. October was particularly strong for the airline, with passenger numbers increasing by 26%. Despite the increase in volume, with flights only increased by 3% in the period and load factors up by 23.5% to 53.7% in October, the airline continues to lose money according to Tomas Laurinaitis, LAL's Deputy Managing Director, due to the weak euro, as the Lithuanian litas is pegged against the dollar, leading to heavy losses in Germany and Scandinavian countries the carrier's key markets. The company also suffered from rising fuel costs. Elsewhere in the Baltic republics Riga International Airport handled 2% more passengers at 488,456 between January and with Estonia's Tallinn Airport 472,717passengers, 2.7% more than the first ten months of 1999.

Article ID: 2193