Airport, EU – Baltic States, Good for Business, Lithuania, Transport

The new entity, DAT LITE, is 85% owned by the Danish firm and 15% by the airline's Lithuanian general manager Albertas Pocevicius, writes LETA/ELTA.

"We are about to register in Lithuania our first aircraft, a turbo-prop Beechcraft 300. The search for customers is on and is conducted by our mother company in Denmark that will also perform all sales and marketing functions," Pocevicius said, "In the course of this year we plan to expand the fleet to three Beechcraft planes to achieve an optimal cost structure."

"DAT LITE will be copying what the DAT airline in Denmark and DOT LT in Lithuania are doing, only using smaller planes," said Jesper Rungholm, owner and CEO of DAT, to news2biz.com, "We will be supplying complimentary transport services, mostly passenger transport, to the oil and gas industry in the form of wet lease, which is aircraft and crew. The first contract is almost in place, for Pointe Noire in the republic of the Congo. Lithuanian crew will be on duty for one month at a time."

Because the Danish majority owner will take care of the commercial side of the business, the Lithuanian company's main function is to manage the assets – the aircraft.

"Corporate air travel is a new business for the group. Instead of adding this new business line to DOT LT that runs a fleet of more spacious ATR aircraft, we have chosen to set up a separate structure for smaller Beechcraft planes with under 20 seats. DAT LITE is also based in Vilnius, not Kaunas, because, first, I am from Vilnius, second, our business is a lot about skilled people, and these are slightly easier to locate in Vilnius," Pocevicius explained.

"The reason why the Danish owner so much prefers Lithuania is lower costs, lower aviation fees as well as efficient and flexible local civil administration agency CAA," Pocevicius said.