Air Lithuania

Infobox Airline
airline = Air Lithunaia

logo_size = 150
fleet_size =
destinations =
IATA = TT
ICAO = KLA
callsign = KAUNAS
parent =
company_slogan =
founded = 1991
ceased = 2005
headquarters = Kaunas, Lithuania
key_people =
hubs =
secondary_hubs =
focus_cities =
frequent_flyer =
lounge =
alliance =
website =

Air Lithuania (in Lithuanian language refers to itself as "Aviakompanija Lietuva" (literally "Air Company "Lithuania")) was a regional airline based in Kaunas in Lithuania. It operated scheduled and charter flights and also provided cargo services and aircraft rental. Its main bases were Kaunas International Airport (KUN) and Palanga International Airport (PLQ).

History

Air Lithuania was established as a state-owned company on 13 September 1991 after the reorganization of Aeroflot Kaunas Joint Air Detachment and started operations on 15 February 1992 on charter flights. The first scheduled flight was in February 1993 on a Kaunas to Budapest route. On 17 July 1995 it was reorganized from a state owned company into a Joint Stock Company and in August 1997 the shares of Air Lithuania were transferred to the parent company Lithuanian Airlines. Air Lithuania is now owned 100% by Arijus, the Lithuanian transport and logistics company. In 2004 the airline carried 54,500 passengers (24% increase over 2003). The airline filed for bankruptcy in November 2005. Fact|date=February 2007

At first the airline used Yakovlev Yak-40 planes, later leased ATR-42.

Services

Air Lithuania operated the following services (at January 2005):

*Domestic scheduled destinations: Kaunas and Palanga (airport is about 35 kilometers away from Klaipėda, therefore is also used by people from this city).

*International scheduled destinations: Billund, Hamburg, Malmö and Oslo.

In December 2004 Air Lithuania announced weekly ATR 42-300 services from Palanga to Cologne/Bonn and Munich starting in May 2005. In January 2005 they announced the launch of services from Billund to Warsaw, Hamburg to Luxembourg, and Oslo to Gdańsk and flights from Palanga to Moscow by the end of March 2005.