Kaunas Airport

Kaunas International Airport Kauno Oro uostas
IATA: KUN – ICAO: EYKA
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner	Ministry of Transport and Communications
Operator	SE "Kaunas Airport"
Serves	Kaunas, Lithuania
Location	Karmėlava
Elevation AMSL	256 ft / 78 m
Coordinates	54°57′50″N 24°05′05″E / 54.96389°N 24.08472°E / 54.96389; 24.08472Coordinates: 54°57′50″N 24°05′05″E / 54.96389°N 24.08472°E / 54.96389; 24.08472
Website	kaunas-airport.lt
Map
EYKA Location in Lithuania
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 08/26 3,250 10,663 Asphalt
Statistics (2015)
Passengers total 747,284 Aircraft movements total 7,438 Cargo (tonnes) total 4,679
Sources: Kaunas Airport[1] and AZ world airports[2]

Kaunas International Airport (Lithuanian: Kauno tarptautinis oro uostas), (IATA: KUN, ICAO: EYKA) is the second busiest civil airport in Lithuania after Vilnius Airport and the fourth busiest in the Baltic states. The airport is located in the central part of the country, 14 km (8.7 mi) northeast of the Kaunas city centre and 100 km west from the capital Vilnius.

History

Kaunas International Airport started operations in 1988 when airport activities were moved from the historic S. Darius and S. Girėnas Airport, located in the central part of Kaunas city. In 1991, after Lithuania's independence, it gained the status of an international airport and in 1996 it became a member of Airports Council International (ACI) and began to take part in the activities of the "Lithuanian Airports" association.

Kaunas Airport was used by YAK-40, and YAK-42 of the local Aeroflot branch since 1988. The flight range was moderate and there were some scheduled flights from Kaunas to Kiev, Kharkiv, Moscow, Odessa, Simferopol, and Šiauliai. Regional airline Air Lithuania based in Kaunas operated scheduled and charter flights from Kaunas to Budapest, Billund, Hamburg, Malmö, and Oslo from 1993 till 2004.

At the beginning of 2013 Ryanair has invested more than 3 million Euro in a new aircraft maintenance and repair hangar in Kaunas, which currently employs 50 people. The airline is further expanding its aircraft maintenance activity at Kaunas Airport, with a planned further investment of 1.6 million Euro, which will allow the servicing of twice as many aircraft. The company intends to employ 40 additional aviation mechanics, and the employment strategy is based on the company's collaboration with the Kaunas School of Mechanics at Kaunas University of Technology in order to prepare necessary specialists and invite students for traineeships.^[3]

Overview

Ownership

The airport is owned and operated by the State-owned enterprise Kauno Aerouostas, and is fully governable to the Ministry of Transport and Communications. In May 2013, the Government announced about the plans to merge Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga airports into one company and the plans has been approved by the Lithuanian parliament in November 2013. The merger will take place in 2014.^[4]

Operations

Ryanair Boeing 737-800 in Kaunas

In 2012 Kaunas Airport accounted 25% of total passenger market in all Lithuanian airports.

Ryanair is the main passenger carrier at the airport, and has gradually expanded its network there since 2005 when the airline first landed at the airport. In 2010, Kaunas Airport became the first airline's base in Eastern Europe and this resulted a more than doubled route network expansion at the airport. The airport reported 77% growth in passenger traffic that year and also won the EURO ANNIES 2011 prize awarded by a weekly aviation e-journal anna.aero as being the fastest growing airport in Europe in the category of under one million passengers.^[5]

The airport is on Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) (subject to daylight saving time in summer).

Catchment area

Almost a quarter of all passenger flow at the airport are travellers from the neighbouring countries Latvia, Belarus and Poland.^[6] Kaunas Airport's catchment area within one hour drive is 1.75 million. In a two-hour drive, one can practically reach any border of Lithuania, bringing the population in the catchment area up to 3.4 million.^[7]

Infrastructure

Terminal building

Departures hall

Inside the terminal building

In 2008 the new three-storey terminal building has been opened for passenger operations. The 7,573 m² (81,520 sq ft) building can handle 800,000 passengers per year and the maximum capacity has been already reached in 2010, three years after the opening. The simple linear terminal design allows further expansions both ways.

The ground level is designated arrival area and fully complies with Schengen regulations. There are all essential facilities for arriving passengers, including bureau de change and car rental offices. The upper two levels are for departing passengers only. All 12 check-in desks are located on the first floor, where the passengers flow is separated to Schengen and non-Schengen departure zones through the security areas located on the first and second floors. The airport is not equipped with air bridges which suits the preference of airport's biggest client Ryanair of boarding and disembarking with steps.

The Terminal facilities also include airline ticket offices, tourism agents, several shops, bars and cafes throughout the airport.

Runway and apron

The runway of Kaunas Airport is 3,250m long and 45m wide, and is categorized with a 4E ICAO reference code. This enables to handle aircraft with up to 45m wing span and 14m main gear wheel span, which includes planes the size of a Boeing 747 or Antonov An-124. The runway is oriented along the dominant direction of western winds; it is also equipped with CAT II ILS equipment which allows Kaunas Airport to receive aircraft with minimum visibility meteorological conditions.

Theoretical runaway average capacity, when aircraft are landing or taking off, is 12 operations per hour.^[8] A new taxiway to improve the runway system was built in 2009. Further taxiway improvement works started in June 2013, expanding the southern part of the airport to construct a new 190m long and 23.2m broad runway by the end of 2014.^[9]

• Approach lights: length 900 m (3,000 ft), intensity LIH.
• Runway end lights: 300 m (980 ft), red.
• Strength: PCN 50 F/B/X/T
• Category for fire-fighting: CAT 7
• Airport ramp: 12,477 m² (134,300 sq ft), 15 parking stands

Maintenance facilities

Ryanair operates its own maintenance hangar at Kaunas Airport, which launched operations in January 2013. It can accommodate one aircraft at a time and performs C type maintenance checks. The same year Ryanair has set to double its MRO capabilities at the airport and began construction of the second hangar in Kaunas.^[10]

FL Technics has announced its plans to invest almost 4 million US dollars into high-tech aircraft maintenance equipment at its newly launched MRO hangar in Kaunas. The latest equipment will support FL Technics MRO centre in servicing both narrow and wide body modern aircraft, including Boeing 747 and Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Following the full implementation, of the investment strategy, the new FL Technics base in Kaunas will create almost 300 new jobs, including over 200 places for aircraft mechanics, engineers and other aviation technical personnel.^[11]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

In 2012 the airport handled 830,268 passengers where 99% of the flow were international passengers travelling on scheduled services. After nine years of continuous growth, when the passenger revenue was increasing with an average of 29% annual growth, 2012 were the first year when the airport recorded decline, which accounted a total of 5% shrink comparing with 2011. Along with the passenger traffic, cargo trend at the airport was going down as well. The airport handled over 3,000 tonnes in 2012, which was 25% less than in 2011 or 2.5 times less than in 2002, when cargo operations used to be the main revenue stream at the airport.

The passenger traffic changes in late 2011 and early 2012 at Kaunas Airport are associated with the rivalry between Ryanair and Wizzair. As a response to the Wizzair's new base established at Vilnius Airport in Spring 2011, the Irish low cost carrier moved Girona and Milan Bergamo routes from Kaunas to Vilnius in late 2011.^[15] In November 2012, Ryanair further cut route geography from Kaunas, by transferring Brussels Charleroi, Leeds, Liverpool, London Luton and Oslo Rygge to Vilnius, leaving only four routes available from Kaunas for the entire winter 2012/13 season.^[16] Some of the routes were restored in Summer 2013, including seasonal destinations.

During high season in aviation business, from April to October 2013, Kaunas airport handled over 544 thousands passengers, 5% less than in the same period of 2012. The highest number of passengers in 2013 was reached in July accounting a total number of 89.9 thousands, what is 1.4% more than in 2012. Overall for the period of January–November 2013, the airport handled 659 thousands passengers, what is 22% less than in the same period the year before.

Traffic numbers at Kaunas Airport

Year	Passengers handled	Passenger % Change	Cargo (tonnes)	Cargo % Change	Aircraft movements	Aircraft % Change
2000	19,202		6,771		4,190
2001	20,137	4.9	9,517	40.6	4,409	5.2
2002	19,891	1.2	8,478	10.9	3,957	10.3
2003	21,732	9.3	6,673	21.3	4,077	3.0
2004	27,113	24.8	3,569	46.5	4,832	18.5
2005	77,350	185.3	4,308	20.7	4,611	4.6
2006	248,228	220.9	6,862	59.3	4,865	5.5
2007	390,881	57.5	6,816	0.7	6,089	25.2
2008	410,000	4.9	3,400	50.1	5,698	6.4
2009	456,698	11.4	2,113	37.9	6,027	5.8
2010	809,732	77.3	4,449	110.6	8,753	45.2
2011	872,618	7.8	4,221	5.1	9,168	4.7
2012	830,268	4.9	3,364	20.3	8,559	6.6
2013	695,509	16.2	2,112	37.2	7,312	14.6
2014	724,315	4.14	2,060	2.45	7,191	1.65
2015	747,284	3.17	4,679	128.29	7,438	3.43

Rank	Country	Airport	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005	2004
1.	Latvia	Riga International Airport	5,162,149	4,814,073	4,793,213	4,767,764	5,106,692	4,663,647	4,066,854	3,690,549	3,160,945	2,495,020	1,878,035	1,060,426
2.	Lithuania	Vilnius International Airport	3,336,084	2,942,670	2,661,869	2,208,096	1,712,467	1,373,859	1,308,632	2,048,439	1,717,222	1,451,468	1,281,872	964,164
3.	Estonia	Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport	2,166,663	2,017,291	1,958,801	2,206,791	1,913,172	1,384,831	1,346,236	1,811,536	1,728,430	1,541,832	1,401,059	997,941
4.	Lithuania	Kaunas International Airport	747,284	724,315	695,509	830,268	872,618	809,732	456,698	410,165	390,881	248,228	77,350	27,113
5.	Lithuania	Palanga International Airport	145,441	132,931	127,890	128,169	111,133	102,528	104,600	101,586	93,379	110,828	94,000	76,020

Ground transportation

Motorway

Motorway A1 near Kaunas

Due to its central location in Lithuania, Kaunas Airport is easily accessible via nearby A6 highway/E262, which connects to the other main motorways in Lithuania A1 motorway (Lithuania) and Via Baltica (E67). Some taxi companies operate from Kaunas Airport. Taxis take around 25 minutes to get to the city centre.

Bus

A bus stop at Kaunas Airport

Kaunas city centre is reachable by direct bus route no 29, operated daily by Kauno Autobusai from 5:00 am to 12:30 am. The maximum one-way travel fare is 0.80 € and the ticket can be purchased from a bus driver. The express service 29E operates on the same route, but offers limited bus stops on the line. The direct intercity services to capital Vilnius and Lithuanian coastal city Klaipeda are also available from and to Kaunas Airport as well as regional low frequency bus links to and from Anykščiai, Biržai, Ignalina, Kupiškis, Marijampolė, Molėtai, Obeliai, Rokiškis, Širvintos, Utena, Visaginas and Zarasai.

The only international link to the airport is provided by Latvian operator Flybus, which runs the schedule to both Riga city centre and Riga International Airport. The services are based on the timetable of departing and arriving flights at Kaunas Airport, and a one-way ticket costs 20 €.

Means of transport at Kaunas Airport
Means of transport	Operator	Route	Destinations	Website	Notes
Bus	Kauno Autobusai	29	Central Station (Lithuanian: Geležinkelio stotis)	www.kvt.lt
	Kautra	--	Anykščiai, Biržai, Ignalina, Kupiškis, Marijampolė, Molėtai, Obeliai, Rokiškis, Širvintos, Utena, Vilnius, Visaginas, Zarasai	www.autobusubilietai.lt
	Ollex	--	Vilnius, Klaipeda	www.ollex.lt
	Flybus	--	Riga	www.flybus.lv/	via Panevėžys (LT) and Bauska (LV)

Other facilities

The Airpark is a territory of Kaunas Free Economic Zone adjacent to Kaunas Airport (3 km border). This neighbourhood of the airport offers exceptional possibilities for investors of the FEZ as the territory integrates air, road and railway facilities. Aviation industry companies as well as logistic businesses find this area attractive due to the accessibility to the runway coupled with the tax and custom incentives offered by the FEZ.^[17]

References

External links

Media related to Kaunas Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Accident history for KUN at Aviation Safety Network