The Belgian carrier wants a million euros as a guarantee that it will not suffer losses if the route is not profitable and does not have a passenger load factor of at least 85 percent.
"We feel pressure from Brussels Airlines. (They say) you'll hold the presidency and it's you who need this. A million euros for changing the time of the flight is too much. If it were for two flights per day, then we could negotiate," the paper quoted Remigijus Matuzas, the director of the Foreign Ministry's European Union Council Presidency Department, as saying.
Brussels Airlines operates the Vilnius-Brussels route daily except Saturdays. The carrier's aircraft lands in Vilnius in the afternoon and takes off for a return flight to Belgium half an hour later. Lithuania would like the arrival and departure times to be moved to the evening during its EU presidency in the second half of next year.
