Due to smuggling balloons arriving from Belarus, the landing and takeoff of aircraft at Vilnius Airport were suspended twice overnight on Thursday, LETA reports.
According to the airport's information, due to a "hybrid attack being carried out by Belarus against civil aviation and the society of Lithuania," the airspace over Vilnius Airport was closed on Wednesday at 22:24. Operations were restored on Thursday at 00:56.
However, at 1:15, the airspace had to be closed again as smuggling balloons were spotted once more in areas where such flying objects pose a threat to aviation safety. After an hour and 15 minutes, the airport's operations were resumed.
The airport warns that there may be delays for individual flights on Thursday due to disruptions in the rotation of aircraft and crews.
It was previously reported that the operations of Vilnius Airport have recently been repeatedly disrupted by meteorological balloons appearing nearby. The balloons are launched from Belarus by cigarette smugglers. In this regard, at the end of October, Lithuania closed the last two border checkpoints with Belarus, but they were reopened on November 20. Lithuania's Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė suggested that the border could be closed again if the situation with the smuggling balloons worsens.
