Aer Lingus will conduct seven flights a week between London and Vilnius for the winter season.

VILNIUS — Ireland’s Aer Lingus is starting direct flights today from Vilnius to London, making it one of two direct flights between Vilnius and the British capital since the beginning of the year when flyLAL went bust and airBaltic rerouted its flights through Riga.

Aer Lingus’ first flight from London Gatwick Airport is scheduled to land at Vilnius International Airport at 10:05 p.m. and take off for a return flight at 10:45 p.m.

The Irish airline plans to operate three weekly flights from Sept. 10
to Oct. 24, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, but will increase to seven per week starting Oct. 25.

It joins new airline Star1 Airlines in flights to London.

The new service complements Aer Lingus’ previously existing service between Vilnius and Dublin. It will operate an Airbus A320 on the route.

Landlocked

Vilnius has become somewhat of a black hole on the European aviation map with very few airlines coming to the Lithuanian capital.

After shutdown of flyLAL in January airBaltic responded by removing most of their direct flights from the capital, instead sending passengers through Riga resulting in higher airport fees and longer waits for passengers.

Skyways, the Swedish airline that started flights to Vilnius in summer, has reneged on promised to have direct flights to Copenhagen, Amsterdam and Berlin, instead just flying to Stockholm.

During the Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009 year, many have blamed the inability to travel to the city as a major factor in the declining amount of tourists.