OSLO (Reuters) -Lithuania has 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.
“Attention: The airspace over Vilnius Airport is closed,” the airport said in a statement on its website, adding that the closure was expected to last until 2:30 a.m. local time (2330 GMT).
FLIGHTS DIVERTED TO LATVIA, POLAND
Travellers should check for updates on the airport’s website and through airline announcements, it said.
“According to our information, the decision was made due to a possible series of balloons heading toward Vilnius Airport. As a result of this incident, flights have been affected,” the airport said on social media.
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 said it had declared a 90-km (56-mile)-long no-fly zone parallel to the country’s border with Belarus, in response to drones entering from there, and that 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 OsloEditing by Matthew Lewis and Rod Nickel)
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