Lithuania has no plans to use Šiauliai Airport for passenger flights, Transport Minister Juras Taminskas said Saturday, even after repeated closures of the country’s major airports in recent weeks due to sightings of smuggling balloons entering from Belarus.
“Our goal is to keep Vilnius Airport open, and if we have a force majeure situation due to balloons or other circumstances, we need to make sure we suspend airport operations for as short a period as possible,” Taminskas told LNK News. “We are not talking about using Šiauliai Airport at this time.”
The idea of diverting flights to Šiauliai, a town in the north of Lithuania some 200 kilometres from Vilnius, was recently raised by the mayor, Artūras Visockas, who argued that the northern Lithuanian airport could easily accommodate planes forced to turn back during temporary closures elsewhere.
“Why should someone fly back to Copenhagen or somewhere else when they can land in Lithuania with ease?” Visockas said. “Maybe they will have to wait an hour, maybe the bus won’t arrive right away, but it will still be ten or a hundred times better than flying back and forth around the world.”
He noted that the airport has a long runway and extensive infrastructure maintained around the clock for military use. “Two or four fighter jets can take off for training or missions in a few minutes, and the rest of the time we have unused infrastructure,” he said.
Aurelija Kuezada, director of Šiauliai Airport, said the facility is ready to receive aircraft in emergencies. However, she stressed that its terminal can handle only about 180 passengers per hour, making it difficult to process multiple flights at once.
Lithuania’s three civilian airports – in Vilnius, Kaunas and Palanga – are operated by Lithuanian Airports (LTOU) under the Transport Ministry. Šiauliai Airport, by contrast, is managed by the municipality and is primarily a military and cargo facility.
President Gitanas Nausėda last week called for better use of Kaunas and Palanga Airports during disruptions at Vilnius.
The discussion comes after Vilnius Airport was closed five times and Kaunas Airport once in recent weeks due to smuggling balloons spotted nearby, affecting more than 190 flights and about 30,000 passengers. Lithuanian officials describe the balloons crossing from Belarus as a hybrid attack by the Minsk government.
In response, Lithuania has closed its border with Belarus for a month.
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