OSLO (Reuters) -Lithuania suspended air traffic at Vilnius Airport due to balloons possibly flying in its airspace, and flights have been diverted to neighbouring countries, the airport’s operator said late on Saturday.
European aviation has repeatedly been thrown into chaos in recent weeks by drone sightings and air incursions, including at airports in Copenhagen and Munich.
“The decision was made due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport,” the operator said in a statement on its Facebook page. “As a result of this incident, flights have been affected.”
FLIGHTS DIVERTED TO LATVIA, POLAND
At 2340 GMT, the airport said that the closure was expected to last until 4:30 a.m. on Sunday (0130 GMT), two hours later than the previous estimate.
Travellers should check for updates on the airport’s website and through airline announcements, it said.
Most incoming flights were redirected to neighbouring Latvia and Poland, while departures were cancelled, the operator said. One flight arriving from Copenhagen had returned to Denmark.
NATO member Lithuania in August declared a 90-km (60-mile) no-fly zone parallel to the border with Belarus in response to drones entering from there, saying this would allow its armed forces to react to violations.
Lithuania, a strong supporter of Ukraine, shares a 679-km (422-mile) border with Belarus, a close ally of Russia. The capital Vilnius lies roughly 30 km from the border.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis and Terje Solsvik in Oslo and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Rod Nickel and William Mallard)
