VILNIUS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- Lithuania's airports were closed three times over the weekend due to balloons, affecting 112 flights and more than 16,500 passengers, the Baltic News Service (BNS) reported.
The Vilnius Airport was most recently closed for nearly seven hours from Sunday evening until early Monday morning, affecting 47 flights and over 7,000 passengers.
This followed a suspension of flights at the country's main airport on Saturday night, which lasted about six hours and delayed some 25 flights and around 3,500 passengers.
Both Vilnius and Kaunas airports were also closed on Friday evening, and reopened early Saturday. The closures disrupted 40 flights in total and caused inconvenience to more than 6,000 passengers.
As the BNS reported earlier, several dozen smugglers' balloons crossed into Lithuania during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday last week, disrupting the operation of the Vilnius Airport and affecting about 30 flights and over 4,000 passengers.
Because of the balloons, Lithuania's two border checkpoints with Belarus, at Medininkai and Salcininkai, were shut down on Sunday evening. They will remain closed until a decision from the National Security Commission, which is meeting on Monday, according to the BNS. ■
