OREANDA-NEWS. December 31, 2013. The first aircraft of the Belarusian airline BelAvia on the Vilnius-Minsk route took off from Vilnius International Airport (VIA). The Belarusian ambassador to Lithuania, representatives of the Department of Tourism of the Republic of Lithuania, the airport and Lithuanian tourism business gave the welcoming address to the passengers on the first flight. The flights to the capital of Belarus will be operated 8 times a week by aircraft CRJ-100/200 with 50 passenger seats.

“This route is already the sixth new route of BelAvia this year. The route to Vilnius is the outcome of thorough market research and diligent preparations for the launch of flights. We believe that the route will be successful, especially considering that the capitals of our countries have finally been connected by an airway. We launched the flights to Vilnius taking into account the demand on the Belarusian market to travel to the capital of Lithuania in a faster and more convenient way. What is more, we introduced a special pricing to those passengers who will travel to Lithuania for short-term shopping or leisure holidays and the so-called “transit” travellers, whereas the passengers travelling from Vilnius to Minsk will have an opportunity to take advantage of the network of transit flights to Russia, the Near East and the Far East offered by BelAvia,” Igor Cherginets, BelAvia Deputy Director General, said.

The aircraft from Minsk National Airport (Minsk-2) will land and take off from Vilnius on Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays as many as two times and one time on Fridays and Thursdays. It is one of the shortest flights in Europe: the trip from Vilnius to the capital of Belarus will last barely 40 minutes.

“We are happy about the successful negotiations with BelAvia, which made the last-minute corrections in our winter schedule by adding another valuable direct flight. The cooperation between Belarusian air carriers and VIA is highly mutually beneficial – it is a convenient and fast travel option for the flows of passengers, in particular business and tourism shopping lovers, from Minsk, whereas for the air carriers already operating in VIA it is a way to generate an additional traffic of transit passengers for connecting and more remote flights to Europe. We are convinced that this route will enhance a positive economic impact on Vilnius Region and Lithuania determined by the growth in arriving passenger traffic. We are happy that the route is launched right before the major holidays of the year – it is a double occasion to celebrate,” VIA Managing Director Gediminas Almantas said.

Vilnius will become the 46th regular route of the Belarusian airline BelAvia from Minsk. This route will supplement the VIA map of regular flights as the 36th route connecting the 43rd airport in the 22nd country located at a distance of a direct flight from the capital of Lithuania to the range of routes already offered by VIA.