Air traffic at Vilnius Airport was resumed on Monday after being suspended on Sunday evening due to smuggled balloons arriving from Belarus, according to information released by the airport, as reported by LETA.
Traffic was suspended on Sunday at 18:09 after balloons were spotted near the airport.
Initially, the order to suspend takeoffs and landings was in effect until 21:00, later extended to 23:00, then to 1:00 AM, and finally to 5:00 AM, when the restrictions in the airspace were lifted.
The airport warns that there may be delays for individual flights on Monday due to disruptions in the rotation of aircraft and crews.
It was previously reported that the operation of Vilnius Airport has been frequently disrupted lately by the presence of meteorological balloons near the area. The balloons are launched by cigarette smugglers from Belarus. In this regard, at the end of October, Lithuania closed the last two remaining border checkpoints with Belarus, but reopened them on November 20. Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė suggested that the border could be closed again if the situation with the smuggled balloons worsens.
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