FlyLal

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FlyLAL (Lithuanian Airlines)

IATA TE	ICAO LIL	Callsign LITHUANIA AIR
Founded		1938
Hubs		Vilnius International Airport
Focus cities		Palanga International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Gintarinės mylios
Fleet size		10
Destinations		21
Headquarters		Vilnius, Lithuania
Key people		Arūnas Griškėnas
Website: http://www.flylal.com

FlyLAL (also known as Lithuanian Airlines and LAL) is the national airline of Lithuania based in Vilnius. It operates domestic and international scheduled services. Its main base is Vilnius International Airport ^[1].

1 Code data
2 History
3 Services
4 Fleet
5 Livery
6 Codeshare partners
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Code data

IATA Code: TE
ICAO Code: LIL
Callsign: LITHUANIA AIR ^[2]

[edit] History

The airline was established on 20 September 1938 and started operations on 29 September 1938 as passenger aviation company "Lietuvos oro linijos" (Lithuanian Air Lines) ^[1], which possessed 2 Percival Q-6 aircraft. The airline started off with flights from Kaunas to Palanga and Riga. In 1940 Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. All flights in the country were operated by a regional branch of Soviet airline Aeroflot

The airline was re-established and renamed, Lietuvos avialinijos on 20 September 1991, shortly after Lithuania's independence from the USSR. It was organised on the basis of Aeroflot fleet based in Vilnius. In 1991 the Boeing 737-200 was introduced to the Lithuanian Airlines fleet, the first in the former USSR. Until 2005, 100% of shares were controlled by government of Lithuania.^{[citation needed]}

After a decade of loss-making operation, aborted plans to launch a trans-Atlantic service, widely criticized sale of landing slots at London Heathrow and amassing tens of millions of litas in debt, in 2005 it was privatized to Lithuanian investors, and uses new branding - flyLAL. The new owners announced plans to turn the airline into a low-cost carrier.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Services

flyLAL serves 16 countries in Europe (including codeshares) from its hub at Vilnius International Airport. From 2006 it operates international routes from Palanga International Airport.^{[citation needed]}

Destinations served by LAL are:

Amsterdam (Amsterdam Schiphol Airport)
Antalya (Antalya Airport)
Brussels (Brussels Airport)
Dublin (Dublin Airport)
Frankfurt (Frankfurt International Airport)
Hamburg (Hamburg Airport)
Helsinki (Helsinki-Vantaa Airport)
Istanbul (Atatürk International Airport)
Kiev (Boryspil Airport)
London (London Gatwick Airport)
Milan (Malpensa International Airport)
Moscow (Sheremetyevo International Airport)
Oslo (Oslo Airport, Gardermoen)
Palanga (Palanga International Airport) Focus City
Paris (Charles de Gaulle International Airport)
Stockholm (Stockholm-Arlanda Airport)
Tallinn (Tallinn Airport)
Vilnius (Vilnius International Airport) HUB

[edit] Fleet

FlyLal Boeing 737-500

The includes the following aircraft (as of August 2006) ^[3]

Type	Number	Seats	Notes
Boeing 737-500	5	109-125
Saab 2000	5	50

[edit] Livery

The first Boeing, acquired by Lithuanian Airlines, was painted in red, with white national coat of arms used as a logo. Soon, all LAL aircraft became white with yellow-green-red stripe (colours of national flag). This scheme is can still be seen on several LAL aircraft. From 2005, after the company was renamed to flyLAL, color-scheme was switched to pink and white.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Codeshare partners

FlyLAL has codeshare agreements with several airlines^{[citation needed]}:

Finnair (route Vilnius - Helsinki)
Iberia (routes Vilnius - Barcelona and Vilnius - Madrid via Brussels or Frankfurt airports)
KLM (route Vilnius - Amsterdam)
SN Brussels Airlines (route Vilnius - Brussels)
Aeroflot (route Vilnius - Moscow)
Pulkovo (route Palanga - St. Petersburg)
DonbassAero (route Vilnius - Kiev)
Aerosvit (route Vilnius - Simferopol)