Lietuvos Avialinijos, better known as Lithuanian Airlines (LAL), was established in 1991 when Lithuania won its independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Over the last 10 years LAL has changed its fleet and has been earmarked for privatization. But its weak market (Lithuania’s population is 3.7 million) could mean it must wait for its expected entry into the European Union in 2004 or 2005 for a real takeoff.
Since LAL broke away from Aeroflot, the Soviet airline network, it has abandoned its routes from Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, to former Soviet central Asian republics in favor of Western European destinations. LAL still flies to Moscow and Kiev, in addition to a dozen Western European cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, Rome, Stockholm and Paris. Between 1999 and 2000, its three-times-weekly service to Paris carried 13,000 passengers, an 86-percent leap.
