airBaltic have announced that they will be replacing Aer Lingus on the London Gatwick to Vilnius (Lithuania) route sometime in 2010. This will be in competition to local carrier Star1 who are well established with a six times per week flight on the London Stansted to Vilnius.
Currently, airBaltic operates direct flights out of two Baltic State capitals – Riga, Latvia, and Vilnius, Lithuania. From Riga airBaltic offers direct flights to Aalesund, Almaty, Athens, Amsterdam, Baku, Barcelona, Belgrade, Bergen, Berlin, Billund, Brussels, Copenhagen, Chisinau, Dubai, Dublin, Dushanbe, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Gothenburg, Hamburg, Hannover, Helsinki, Istanbul, Kaliningrad, Kaunas, Kiev, Kuopio, Lappeenranta, London, Madrid, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Munich, Nice, Odessa, Oslo, Oulu, Palanga, Paris, Pskov, Rome, Simferopol, Stavanger, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Tallinn, Tampere, Tartu, Tashkent, Tbilisi, Tel Aviv, Tromso, Turku, Umea, Vaasa, Venice, Vienna, Vilnius, Warsaw, Zurich and Yerevan. From Vilnius airBaltic offers direct flights to Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Munich, Paris, Riga, Rome and Tallinn. airBaltic also operates direct flights between Tallinn and Turku, Tallinn and Lappeenranta, Tampere and Kuopio, Turku and Oulu, Bergen and Stavanger, Umea and Vaasa. The airBaltic fleet currently consists of 31 aircraft - 2 Boeing 757-200, 10 Boeing 737-500s, 8 Boeing 737-300 and 11 Fokker-50s. Star1 airlnes launched its commercial activities in the summer of 2009 after the holding company "Star Team Group" purchased "HC Airways" for the purpose of promoting and developing the inbound and outbound tourism in Lithuania. "Star Team Group" also owns tour operator "Star1 Holidays". Currently the company operates regular flights from Vilnius to: London – 6 weekly flights to Stansted Airport Milan – 2 weekly flights to Malpensa Airport "Star1 Airlines" also holds 2 seasonal routes to: Dublin Girona (Barcelona) All Star1 Flights are operated with a next generation Boeing 737-700.
