{"id":64566,"date":"2025-11-25T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons"},"modified":"2025-11-25T09:23:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:23:12","slug":"lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons","title":{"rendered":"Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closes again due to balloons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closed on Thursday due to smugglers\u2019 balloons appearing on radar, Lithuania\u2019s National Crisis Management Centre said.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Baltic republic closed its border crossings with Belarus in response to airspace disruptions by weather balloons coming in from Belarus, but reopened them earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Lithuania has said the balloons, which have caused closures at Lithuanian airports, are flown by smugglers transporting contraband cigarettes and blames Belarus\u2019s President Alexander Lukashenko for not stopping the practice, calling it a form of \u201chybrid attack\u201d.<\/p>\n

Air traffic incident reports had decreased in recent weeks, prior to Thursday\u2019s closure of Vilnius airport.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closed on Thursday due to smugglers\u2019 balloons appearing on radar, Lithuania\u2019s National Crisis Management Centre said. Last month, the Baltic republic closed its border crossings with Belarus in response to airspace disruptions by weather balloons coming in from Belarus, but reopened them earlier on Thursday. Lithuania has said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-64566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nLithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closes again due to balloons - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closed on Thursday due to smugglers\u2019 balloons appearing on radar, Lithuania\u2019s National Crisi ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closes again due to balloons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closed on Thursday due to smugglers\u2019 balloons appearing on radar, Lithuania\u2019s National Crisi ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T09:04:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T09:23:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1764049853.076077.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closes again due to balloons\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-25T09:04:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-25T09:23:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons\"},\"wordCount\":126,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/11\/sm_1764049853.076077.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lithuanias-vilnius-airport-closes-again-due-to-balloons\",\"name\":\"Lithuania\u2019s Vilnius airport closes again due to balloons - 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