Due to smuggling balloons arriving from Belarus, the landing and takeoff of aircraft at Vilnius Airport were suspended again on Sunday evening, LETA reports citing LRYTAS.
Traffic was halted from 18:55 on Sunday until 00:25 on Monday, as balloons were spotted near the airport, the airport reported.
Several arriving flights were redirected to Kaunas, Riga, and Warsaw. Seven incoming flights and four outgoing flights were canceled.
It was previously reported that the operations of Vilnius Airport have been regularly disrupted by the presence of meteorological balloons in its vicinity. The balloons are launched from Belarusian territory by cigarette smugglers. In response, Lithuania closed the last two border checkpoints with Belarus at the end of October, but they were reopened on Thursday. On Friday, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė suggested that the border could be closed again if the situation with the smuggling balloons worsens.
Recently, unmanned aerial vehicles have been affecting airport operations in other European countries as well.
