Name: Vilnius International Airport (EYVI)
Address: LT

Vilnius International Airport (IATA: VNO, ICAO: EYVI) is Lithuania's main international airport and sits roughly 30 kilometres west of the Belarusian border. Since October 2025 it has been the focal point of a series of airspace closures caused by smuggling balloons launched from Belarusian territory. Lithuanian officials have described the pattern as a hybrid security threat; the EU has moved toward sanctioning Belarus in response.

AirVeto's value at Vilnius Airport is situational: when a balloon incursion is reported, the first question is whether the wind field at the relevant altitude band was pointing from the Belarusian side toward the airport approach. Orange border segments on the Lithuanian-Belarusian frontier in the hours before a recovery indicate the drift envelope was physically compatible. Several entries in the incident archive reconstruct specific Vilnius closures.

Smuggling balloons over the Belarusian-Lithuanian border typically cruise between 3,000 m and 8,000 m. Reading the wind at those altitudes rather than at the surface is usually the correct call; the boundary-layer wind often looks quite different from the mid-troposphere flow that actually governs balloon drift.

Vilnius has been closed more than ten times since early October 2025 for balloon incursions — see the incident archive for reconstructions of the individual events.

The closures follow a recognisable shape. A balloon released on the Belarusian side, 30 km east, needs roughly an hour to reach the airport approach at a typical mid-level wind speed, so Vilnius closures cluster in narrow overnight windows after a specific release rather than spreading evenly across a day. That one-hour transit is also why the airport, not the border, is where the disruption registers — the objects reach the approach deep inside Lithuanian airspace.

Reading a Vilnius event on AirVeto means checking two things. First the direction: were the Lithuanian-Belarusian border segments orange (wind crossing into Lithuania within the inflow threshold) in the hours before the closure? Second the altitude: balloon cruise sits well above the surface, so the 3,000 to 8,000 m field is the one that governs the drift, and it can differ sharply from the boundary-layer wind a standard forecast shows. When both line up, the wind view explains the closure; when they do not, the event warrants a closer look.

Each reconstructed closure in the archive below pairs that wind read with the primary reporting for the event. Together they make Vilnius Airport the most heavily documented single location in the AirVeto archive — and the clearest case for why a multi-altitude wind layer, rather than a surface forecast, is the right tool for this frontier.

Full closure log, in order: 28 January 2026 — eight balloons intercepted near the airport, four arrests (VSAT / LRT). 10 February 2026 — approximately 700 passengers diverted, three flights to Riga and two to Kaunas (Aviation24.be, Reuters; exact date pending final source confirmation). 17 February 2026 — 75-minute restriction, Finnair cancelled evening services. 15 March 2026 — 110-minute restriction, third closure of the year. 22 March 2026 — fourth closure of the year, seven nights after the previous one. 9–10 April 2026 — close to seven hours, night flights delayed, diverted, or cancelled. 12–13 May 2026 — one hour, 128 passengers affected, one flight diverted to Copenhagen; LRT's coverage described it as the ninth disruption of the year. 7–8 June 2026 — 2 hours 42 minutes, 453 passengers, four flights diverted and one cancelled.

Incidents at this location

Vilnius International Airport (EYVI)

Incidents at this location

Vilnius Airport balloons - 28 Jan 2026, 8 intercepted

Vilnius Airport closed by balloons - 9–10 April 2026

Vilnius airport closure, 8 June 2026 - 5 flights

Related reading

Three months of cross-border inflow