The Transport Ministry has postponed its plans to subsidise air connections with Lithuania amid fund shortages.
Under the plan, proposed by consultants in summer, the Lithuanian government was to offer financial incentives to airlines in order to create a dozen new flight routes to and from the country.
“We have a flight promotion model ready, but no funds earmarked for its implementation thus far. We will therefore simply have to postpone its implementation until a later date,” Transport Minister Marius Skuodis told the parliamentary Committee on the Economy as it discussed the 2023 budget bill on October 19.
Deputy Transport Minister Julius Skackauskas said early in October that the ministry wanted 12 new flight destinations to be created next year using financial incentives from the budget. He then said that the precise number of destinations would depend on actual appropriations from the budget.
As announced this summer, the proposed promotion model would provide air links to at least 10 important destinations for Lithuania during a decade, including Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Munich and Rome.
In July, Skuodis approved Lithuania’s aviation guidelines until 2030, under which Lithuania should become accessible by direct flights from at least 150 destinations within the next decade. (LRT/Business World Magazine)