A new, expanded passenger terminal at Kaunas Airport will open in October, Lithuania’s deputy transport minister said Wednesday, alongside news that direct flights to Riga will begin next spring.
“The airport is expanding by nearly one and a half times, and the terminal will open in October, meaning it will be able to handle more than 2 million passengers,” Deputy Minister Juras Taminskas told reporters.
He added that starting in spring 2026, Latvian carrier airBaltic will operate five weekly flights between Kaunas and Riga, giving central Lithuania residents an alternative to travelling to Vilnius to connect to the Latvian capital.
Through Riga, passengers will gain convenient one-stop connections to major European cities, including Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, London, Vienna and Zurich, said Mantas Vrubliauskas, airBaltic’s vice president for network development.
Lithuanian Airports CEO Simonas Bartkus said the new flights would boost economic growth and tourism in the Kaunas region.
The terminal expansion added both eastern and western wings, enlarging all three floors. Baggage claim areas, Schengen and non-Schengen zones, and passenger waiting, dining and shopping areas were all expanded. Once complete, the upgraded facilities will allow the airport to handle up to six passenger flights per hour.
The €17.7 million project (excluding VAT) was built by construction company Infes.
Other recent improvements include upgrades to the airport’s parking lot, which now covers nearly 10,000 square meters. A multilevel parking structure for more than 900 vehicles is also under construction near the terminal.
Long-term development plans envision using land on the opposite side of the runway to expand cargo, aircraft repair and maintenance services by 2052.
Kaunas Airport handled 1.4 million passengers in 2024, a 10% increase from the previous year and already exceeding the old terminal’s design capacity.
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