It doesn’t really look like an airport. The terminal at Vilnius Airport is more reminiscent of a train station. Outside it is decorated with reliefs of soldiers, workers and pilots, inside with wreaths, laurel leaves and stars. It was opened in 1954 – designed for a maximum of 20 flights per day.
The halls, passageways and staircases are correspondingly narrow. The old Soviet-era terminal was replaced by a new one in 2007. It offers significantly more space. However, a mistake was made. The building was built out onto the apron instead of stretching along the site. That is why space for planes in Vilnius is limited.
The airport in the Lithuanian capital is now correcting this. On January 31st he started the construction of a new terminal. It will be 14,400 square meters, increasing the total area of the airport’s passenger terminals by a third and doubling the capacity to 2,400 passengers per hour.
The new terminal at Vilnius Airport will have two floors. A self-service check-in area, cafés and shops and airline counters will be located on the ground floor, while security controls and the departure and arrival gates for passengers from Schengen countries will be located on the second floor.
The new terminal will be built between the VIP terminal and the old passenger terminal. It costs 41.5 million euros and is scheduled to open in early 2025. After completion, the operator Lithuanian Airports intends to renovate and expand the old terminals in several phases.
In the picture gallery above you can see photos of the old and the planned new terminal in Vilnius. If you click on the picture, the gallery will open in large format.
This article was written by Stefan Eiselin
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The original for this article “Vilnius Airport finally corrects a catastrophic planning error” comes from aeroTelegraph.
