Vilnius airport halts flights for 3rd time this week after balloon sightings
Operations at Vilnius International Airport were briefly suspended on Dec. 6 after unidentified objects — believed to be Belarusian balloons — were detected in the surrounding airspace, the airport said.
The incident marks the third such disruption in Lithuania this week, with Vilnius facing repeated flight interruptions over the past months.
European airports have increasingly dealt with airspace alerts involving drones or unidentified objects, prompting temporary shutdowns in cities such as Copenhagen and Brussels.
Lithuanian authorities said that the airspace restrictions first began around 6 p.m. local time, amid the sightings of the flying objects.
Officials in Vilnius have long attributed many of these incidents to weather balloons used by smugglers to ferry illicit cigarettes across the border from Belarus. The Lithuanian government accuses Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko of deliberately allowing — and effectively weaponizing — the practice, describing it as part of a wider "hybrid attack" on the Baltic state.
In a statement posted on the Vilnius International Airport's social media account, the airport referred to the incident as a "hybrid attack carried out by Belarus against Lithuania."
In October, Lithuania shut down both of its remaining border crossings with Belarus in response to a surge of balloon incidents. The checkpoints were reopened last week after the situation appeared to stabilize and no new disruptions were reported, according to Reuters.
Lukashenko accused Western countries of waging a hybrid war against Belarus and Russia. and dismissed Lithuania’s border closures as "a crazy scam."
In response to the balloon incidents, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Dec. 1 that the European Union is preparing additional sanctions against Lukashenko in response to what Brussels describes as a "hybrid" campaign targeting Lithuania.
Lithuanian Airports (LTOU) said earlier that roughly 320 flights have been affected by the incursions from Belarus and estimated financial losses exceeding 750,000 euros ($870,000) for the airport operator and its partners.
