Vilnius airport's central square reopens after renovation

VILNIUS, Aug 29, BNS – Vilnius Airport's central square reopened to passengers and vehicles at 4 a.m. on Thursday, offering three times as many parking spaces – 350 in total – as before its renovation.

Arnas Dumanas, head of development at Lietuvos Oro Uostai (Lithuanian Airports, LTOU), said the renovation project, one of the most challenging stages of the airport's expansion, was completed a month ahead of schedule.

"Both the future terminal capacity and the current transport access will definitely double. In terms of parking, the number of spaces in this area has increased threefold from before. We also have a larger canopy to protect against rain and heat," he told reporters at the airport.

Dumanas added that this phase of construction was especially difficult due to the need to manage passenger flows.  

Paulius Ivanauskas, project manager at LTOU, said that traffic to and from the airport will now operate on a circular route.

"Previously, we had five different entrances to the airport; now we will have one main entrance and one main exit, so everything will follow a circular pattern," he said. 

Almantas Cebanauskas, CEO of Eikos Statyba, the contractor for the 9.5-million-euro central square renovation project, said that the airport's 50-million-euro passenger departure terminal will likely be completed about a month earlier than the scheduled date of February 4, 2025. However, this does not mean that passengers will have immediate access.

LTOU last January unveiled plans to invest around 180 million euros in renovating Vilnius Airport's terminals and building new ones.