Vilnius Airport

Vilnius is the fastest-growing airport in the Baltics right now – and one where you see more than the schedule suggests. A single runway, a terminal with a Soviet-era columned facade and a brand-new departures building, plus airBaltic, Ryanair and Wizz Air in scheduled service. The real extra is the maintenance and ACMI cluster around FL Technics: It ensures that aircraft that at first glance have nothing to do with Lithuania keep standing in front of the hangars.

From grass airfield to Čiurlionis Airport

The airport’s history begins at a time when Vilnius belonged to Poland as Wilno. On August 17, 1932, the Wilno-Porubanek airfield opened in the south of the city. In World War II it served military purposes, and from July 17, 1944, civil traffic ran again.

The building that still defines the airport’s face today was built between 1949 and 1954. It is a typical building of the early Soviet era, with columns and figure decoration on the facade. With the growing traffic after Lithuania’s independence, that quickly stopped being enough: In 1993 a new departures terminal was added, in 2007 a modernized area so that the airport could meet the requirements of the Schengen Area.

Since January 1, 2025, the airport has carried an additional name for five years: Vilnius Čiurlionis International Airport. The occasion is the 150th birthday of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Lithuania’s best-known painter and composer. The name applies until the end of 2029; nothing changes about the codes VNO and EYVI.

One runway running north–south

The layout is quickly explained: The only runway, 01/19, is 2,515 meters long and 50 meters wide. Unlike many European airports with east–west runways, it runs north–south. The urban area lies north of the airfield – approaches to 19 therefore lead over residential areas, while approaches to 01 come from the more open south.

In summer 2017, the airport was completely closed for a good month. From July 14 to August 17, the runway was renewed, and during that time Kaunas Airport, about 100 kilometers to the west, took over all traffic. For many spotters, that was a rare chance to see the Vilnius fleets at another airfield.

Runway direction in use: 01 or 19?

Takeoffs and landings are into the wind. When it blows from the south, runway direction 19 applies: The approaches come in over the city, and takeoffs head south. With a north wind the picture reverses. According to spotter guides, Vilnius has no fixed traffic pattern; pilots like to request direct approaches and departures in suitable weather, and with little traffic the direction sometimes changes too. So check wind and flight tracking before you set out – how that works is explained in the posts on the runway direction in use at an airport and on flight tracking with ADS-B.

The maintenance cluster: FL Technics and the ACMI world

What sets Vilnius apart from many capital-city airports of a similar size stands next to the taxiways: hangars. The maintenance company FL Technics opened its first hangar at Vilnius Airport in 2005 and operates a heavy maintenance base there in which several narrowbody aircraft fit at the same time; frequent customers fly the Airbus A320 family and the Boeing 737, for example. FL Technics operates a second large maintenance base in Kaunas.

FL Technics belongs to Avia Solutions Group. The group was founded in Vilnius in 2010, has since moved its headquarters to Dublin and is among the big providers in the ACMI business – that is, leasing aircraft complete with crew, maintenance and insurance to other airlines. The group includes the ground handler Baltic Ground Services, which also handles flights in Vilnius, as well as the flight school BAA Training and the ACMI airline Avion Express.

On top of that come airline maintenance bases: According to Lithuanian sources, airBaltic, Ryanair and Wizz Air have aircraft maintenance stations in Vilnius. The sum makes for a small but active maintenance location. For you as a spotter, that means:

• Maintenance visitors: Aircraft of other airlines come to Vilnius for checks and often stand in front of the halls for days or weeks.
• Ferry flights: After painting, a check or a lease change, aircraft sometimes depart in a neutral color or with fresh registrations.
• ACMI jets: Lithuanian charter and leasing airlines such as GetJet Airlines, Avion Express or Heston Airlines often fly on behalf of other companies – in their own or someone else’s livery.
• Stored aircraft: Spotter guides occasionally mention aircraft at the edge of general aviation waiting to be dismantled.

What exactly happens in checks and how to target maintenance yards is explained in the posts on aircraft maintenance from A to C check and on maintenance companies and yards in Europe.

Who flies in Vilnius

Since the demise of flyLAL in 2009, Lithuania has had no large network airline of its own. Foreign carriers have filled the gap. A central role is played by Latvia’s airBaltic, which uses Vilnius as a base alongside Riga and Tallinn. Its own fleet consists exclusively of the Airbus A220-300 – collecting works here only via the registrations.

Low-cost carriers are also strongly represented. Ryanair operates a base with Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Wizz Air is likewise present with a base and deploys jets of the A320 family, such as the A321neo. Besides classic city destinations, the network includes routes such as Reykjavík-Keflavík.

Network airlines connect Vilnius with their hubs: Lufthansa to Frankfurt, LOT Polish Airlines to Warsaw, Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, SAS to Copenhagen and Stockholm and Finnair to Helsinki. With LOT, regional jets such as the Embraer E195 are often seen.

A milestone came in May 2026: With about 535,000 passengers, Vilnius handled more travelers in a single month than Riga Airport, which for a long time was the undisputed number one in the Baltics, for the first time, according to Lithuanian statistics. Whether that stays this way for good will only be shown by the annual balance.

Cargo and special movements

Besides passenger traffic, express cargo plays a role in Vilnius. Flights in the DHL network connect the airport with the Leipzig/Halle hub, among others, plus cargo flights by Turkish Cargo to Istanbul. Which freighters you get in front of your lens depends heavily on the operator – tips for identification are provided by the post How to recognize cargo aircraft.

On November 25, 2024, a Boeing 737 freighter flying on behalf of the DHL network from Leipzig to Vilnius crashed on final approach about 1.3 kilometers north of the airport. The captain was killed, and three other crew members were injured.

Another kind of disruption was also unusual in 2025: Several times the airport had to interrupt operations because balloons from neighboring Belarus drifted into the airspace. Such closures come without long warning – if you are planning a trip to Vilnius, keep an eye on the news.

And then there are the widebody aircraft, which are real rarities in Vilnius. According to the spotter community, the parking positions are designed for narrowbodies; if a widebody does come once, it usually parks on a taxiway or on one of the few suitable positions. State visits, sports charters and special flights are then the highlights of the year.

Spotting in Vilnius: platform, fence and parking garage

Unlike in Tallinn, Vilnius has an official viewing point: West of the south end of the runway, the airport has set up an elevated platform from which you photograph over the fence. From there you see all movements on the runway and part of the taxiways. According to spotter guides, the best light there is from the early afternoon until sunset; for taxiways moderate focal lengths are enough, for the runway you should plan on up to about 300 millimeters.

Beyond that, community guides such as the spotter guide describe about a dozen further points. Roughly, they can be divided like this:

• South end west: Along the road at the fence south of the runway you see landings on 01 and aircraft rolling up. In the afternoon you have the sun at your back here; an elevated vantage point sometimes helps.
• North side at the apron: A farm track and a fence section north of the apron offer views of parked aircraft and taxi movements – according to guides, mainly in summer early in the morning and in the evening with good light.
• Short final 19: Further north, toward the city, are points for approaches to 19.
• East side: East of the runway you photograph approaches to 19 in the morning and aircraft rolling up on 01.
• Parking garage at the terminal: From the upper deck of a parking garage southwest of the terminal you look onto the southern apron. Since it is a parking area, security staff may ask questions.
• Southeast: For approaches to 01, according to guides, the terrain southeast of the airfield is suitable, mainly in the morning.
• General aviation: At the end of the road near the flight school you see light aircraft and occasionally stored aircraft; the area is under camera surveillance.

Getting there: train, bus or car

The airport is so close to the city that you reach it in a few minutes. Since October 2008, a train has run between the airport and the main station; the line of about 4.3 kilometers takes about eight minutes. City buses and minibuses also stop at the terminal, and long-distance buses connect the airport with other cities.

For the points on the west side – platform, fence at the south end, parking garage – you get by well with public transport. You reach the east side and the terrain in the southeast much more conveniently by car. Restrooms and food are only in the terminal; according to guides, the arrivals area is the quickest address for a break. How to plan the trip in general is shown in the post Getting to the spot.

The new departures terminal

For a long time the terminal was the airport’s bottleneck. Since February 4, 2025, a new departures terminal has been in operation. It was built from 2023, adds about 14,400 square meters of floor space and is designed to double handling capacity to about 2,400 passengers per hour. The cost was estimated at about 50 million euros.

The historic 1954 building is kept and remains part of the airport’s look – with its columned facade it is one of the most striking terminal buildings in the Baltic Sea region. For photos the combination is appealing: old reception building, new glass building and, in between, the airBaltic A220.

Seasons on the Neris

Vilnius has a clearly more continental climate than the coastal airports of Riga and Tallinn. According to spotter guides, summer brings the most traffic and lots of sun, but also heat and strong shimmer over the runway – long focal lengths suffer from it. Spring and fall offer the best light.

In winter the days are short, often gray and cold. In return there are snow and deicing as subjects that are rare further south. Tips for cold, battery and camera are in the post Plane spotting in winter, background on handling in frost in the post on the deicing of aircraft.

Vilnius compared

In the Baltics, Vilnius forms a trio with Riga and Tallinn that combines well into a round trip. Riga Airport is the hub of airBaltic and has more connecting traffic, Tallinn Airport is smaller and reachable by tram. To the south, Warsaw Chopin Airport suggests itself as a LOT hub, to the north Helsinki-Vantaa Airport with Finnair long-haul.

For a longer tour, the posts on the best spotting spots in Europe and on the spotting road trip through Europe provide ideas.

Conclusion

Vilnius Airport is small but growing strongly: over five million passengers in 2025, a new departures terminal and, in May 2026, for the first time a month ahead of Riga. Scheduled traffic is determined by airBaltic with its A220 fleet as well as Ryanair and Wizz Air.

What makes VNO special for spotters is the maintenance and ACMI cluster. FL Technics, the airlines’ maintenance bases and the Lithuanian leasing and charter airlines keep bringing aircraft to the airfield that aren’t in the schedule. With the official platform, a north–south runway and some planning around the light, you get a lot out of a day in Vilnius.