Germany's DHL to invest at least 3 million euros in terminal at Vilnius airport

However, the company will have to negotiate a possibility to use the storage facilities of Lithuania's state-owned postal operator Lietuvos Paštas (Lithuanian Post) and will consider a proposal from the Transport Ministry to expand in the airport of Kaunas amid absence of a detailed plan for the development of Vilnius airport.

"I think that the absence of a detailed plan thwarts the expansion of both our and other companies in the airport," Mindaugas Pivoriūnas, CEO of DHL Lietuva, told BNS after the meeting with Transport Minister Eligijus Masiulis and CEO of Vilnius airport on Wednesday.

The capacity of the terminal would depend on the area of land available and investment would reach at least 3 million euros, he said.

"We will try to meet with Vilnius Mayor Artūras Zuokas and discuss ways to speed up the approval of the airport's detailed plan since now it is only expected to be approved in 2016. The alternatives [put forward by the Transport Ministry] could be considered if there actually are any obstacles for the approval of the detailed plan," Pivoriūnas said.

Transport Minister Masiulis told BNS that DHL has been offered alternatives, such as expanding in Kaunas Airport and cooperating with Lietuvos Paštas.

"We proposed they that look into other alternatives, including Kaunas, which is attractive due to its geographical location, the nearby free economic area and the planned railway line. Lietuvos Paštas is planning to build a distribution center in Kaunas, which could be a joint project. That is one of the options," he told BNS.

DHL Lietuva currently has one 5,000-square-meter terminal in Vilnius Airport, in which it has invested 5 million euros and which has already become too small for it.

Pivoriūnas said that increased capacity in Vilnius would allow offloading some traffic from DHL's terminal in Leipzig, in Germany. DHL now has plans to build terminals in Warsaw, Bucharest and Bratislava.

Masiulis on Wednesday met with Bryan Jamison, DHL's managing director for European operations, and Mark Evans, the managing director for Central European operations.

DHL launched a marine container freight distribution center in Vilnius in early 2010, which provides transit services for partners in the other Baltic countries and the CIS countries.

According to data from Vilnius Airport, DHL is the largest freight operator in the airport, handling up to 200 tons on average monthly.