Lithuania’s airports were closed three times over the weekend after weather balloons used to smuggle cigarettes from neighbouring Belarus entered its airspace, disrupting 112 flights and affecting more than 16,500 passengers.
Vilnius Airport was most recently closed for nearly seven hours, from Sunday evening until early Monday morning, affecting 47 flights and over 7,000 passengers.
A similar shutdown took place the night before, on October 25, when flights were suspended around 9:30 p.m. and resumed roughly six hours later, disrupting about 25 flights and 3,500 passengers.
Both Vilnius and Kaunas airports were also closed on Friday evening, around 8:30 p.m., before reopening early Saturday. That incident affected 40 flights and more than 6,000 travellers.
Flights were cancelled, delayed or diverted. Passengers were advised not to travel to the airports and to contact their airlines for guidance.
Earlier last week, dozens of smuggling balloons crossed into Lithuania from Belarus, forcing the temporary suspension of operations at Vilnius Airport from the night of October 21 until the following morning, disrupting around 30 flights and affecting some 4,000 passengers.
In response, Lithuania shut its two border checkpoints with Belarus at Medininkai and Šalčininkai on Sunday evening. They will remain closed pending a decision by the National Security Commission, which meets on Monday, October 27.
President Gitanas Nausėda has also said that restrictions on transit to and from Russia’s Kaliningrad region could be considered, though final decisions will rest with the government.
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