With no flag carrier of its own, Lithuania's homegrown aviation industry is very much made up of charter operators and aircraft leasing firms. So when it comes to the most-used active commercial aircraft in the country, which jets come in at the top of the list? Let's find out.

When it comes to serving the needs of regular passengers, the country sees most traffic coming from operators like airBaltic and Ryanair but also sees services from Wizz Air, Lufthansa, LOT, SAS, and Turkish Airlines. However, none of the aircraft operated by these airlines makes the list in terms of Lithuania's most-used aircraft- primarily because planes from these carriers are registered and used across the networks of their respective airlines.

The top 10 list

According to data from ch-aviation.com, the following aircraft rank as the 10 most-used active commercial aircraft in Lithuania:

• OY-JRK: An 28-and-a-half-year-old Airbus A320-200 with 62,924 hours and 28,362 flight cycles
• OY-RUZ: A nearly 24-year-old Airbus A320-200 with 55,413 hours and 37,365 flight cycles
• LY-VEN: A 20.5-year-old Airbus A320-200 with 54,494 hours and 31,380 cycles
• LY-PLW: A nearly 13-year-old Airbus A330-200 with 53,959 flight hours and 6,309 flight cycles
• LY-LEO: A nearly 16-year-old Airbus A330-300 with 45,068 flight hours and 13,749 flight cycles
• OY-RUR: A nearly 33-year-old ATR72-200 with 44,616 flight hours and 67,277 flight cycles
• OY-JRJ: A 35-year-old ATR42-300QC with 43,576 flight hours and 47,554 flight cycles
• OY-LHC: A 28-year-old ATR72-200 with 43,483 flight hours and 53,433 flight cycles
• LY-NZL: A 17-year-old A320-200 with 42,376 flight hours and 31,520 flight cycles
• OY-JRY: A 34-year-old ATR42-300 with 41,210 flight hours and 54,690 flight cycles

Danish registrations?

The most interesting part of this list is the fact that six of the 10 aircraft listed are registered with Danish aircraft registration codes- utilizing the OY prefix rather than Lithuania's LY.

As far as we can tell, the reason for this is that the aircraft are operated by the firm DAT, formerly known as Danish Air Transport. This airline, headquartered in Denmark, operates scheduled and chartered passenger and cargo flights. And while much of DAT's operations take place in and out of Denmark, the company has a Lithuanian subsidiary known as Danu Oro Transportas- or "DOT."

Data from Planespotters.net indicates that Lithuania's DOT currently only has one aircraft registered to it- an ATR42. As a result, it's hard to say if the Danish-registered aircraft in our top 10 list really count as being "in Lithuania," as the information may be out of date. It's clear, however, that these OY-prefixed aircraft haven't flown in Lithuania for quite some time- with flight data indicating that more time is spent in and around Denmark.

Registered in Lithuania

Despite the previous section's strange Danish connection, country of registration doesn't exactly mean all that much either if we are thinking in terms of aircraft usage.

Indeed, Avion Express' A320 LY-VEN has been hired out to the United Nations since February 2021. The Lithuanian-registered jet has been mostly flying between Aden and Amman, in Jordan.

While the A330 registered as LY-PLW has made a couple of appearances in Vilnius (Lithuania) this month, the Heston Airlines preighter has been operating cargo missions to cities like Hong Kong, Paris, Riga, and more.

It's a similar story for GetJet's A330 registered LY-LEO. This passenger-configured aircraft appears to have been chartered to fly some fairly long-distance routes in recent times, including Hong Kong-Sydney, Delhi-Hong Kong, Barcelona-Delhi, and more.

It's safe to say that our list did not generate the results that we were expecting! At the same time, it's a good reflection of Lithuania's role as a base for charter and wet lease airlines.

Have you ever flown with GetJet? Or Danish Air Transport? Let us know by leaving a comment.