Vilnius District Court has told Novaturas, a tour operator in the Baltic States, to pay EUR1.15 million euros (USD1.23 million) to GetJet Airlines (GW, Vilnius) for what it called an illegally terminated contract, as compensation for flights not operated under contract during the coronavirus pandemic, the two companies said after the September 11 ruling.

The court recognised that Novaturas had unilaterally and illegally ended the contract on December 28, 2020, while at the same time satisfying its demand to consider the contract terminated as of January 1, 2021. It rejected the tour operator’s request to declare that even after the lifting of Covid-19 quarantines it could not fulfil its obligations under the deal due to force majeure circumstances.

The court awarded a total of EUR1.65 million (USD1.77 million) in favour of GetJet, but as the ACMI/charter specialist had already used a EUR500,000 (USD540,000) deposit for the damages, Novaturas will pay EUR1.15 million plus 8% annual interest from the start of 2021, the companies said.

“This is exactly the decision we had hoped for. The court has confirmed that attempting to justify unilateral contract terminations with dubious arguments and unjustified non-fulfilment of long-term obligations in the business environment of the rule of law cannot be tolerated,” GetJet Airlines CEO Rūta Kulvinskaitė said in a statement.

Novaturas said that “the decision of the court of first instance is not final” and that it will decide whether to appeal. It added that “according to a preliminary assessment”, the ruling “will not have a significant impact on the company’s activities.”

The legal dispute arose from a long-term charter flight agreement signed in December 2018. It should have lasted until 2022, but in June 2020 the tour operator reportedly told GetJet it did not intend to extend it after its expiry. Six months later, it terminated it with immediate effect and applied to the courts for a temporary injunction against the airline to recover a penalty, but a court rejected its request. That prompted GetJet to file a counterclaim seeking compensation in March 2021.