Europe’s best-value city reveals major airport renovation with new terminals and train station
A MAJOR airport renovation will make flying to one of Europe’s cheapest cities much easier.
Vilnius in Lithuania was named the best value city in Europe by the Post Office earlier this year.
And the city’s main airport is to undergo a huge expansion.
Vilnius International Airport is expected to welcome up to ten million passengers by 2030.
This increases to 17 million passengers expected a year by 2052.
The new expansion plans will increase capacity with a new arrivals and departure terminal.
The departure terminal was set to open this summer, although has been delayed to February 2025.
Set across 14,400sqm, passenger traffic will double from 1,200 to 2,400 an hour.
Inside will be 34 check in counters and new CT scanners, which will speed up security checks.
Self-service baggage claim areas and seating areas will be part of the new terminal.
Costing around €50million (£41.6million), the terminal construction has now finished with final testing to take place ahead of its opening next year.
And a new arrivals terminal hopes to open by 2028.
Arnas Dūmanas, Head of the Development Department of Lithuanian Airports, confirmed they had launched an architectural competition for the new designs.
They said: “We are already in a period of major change, but in parallel we want to make every future infrastructure change at the capital’s air gateway.
“It is for these reasons that we believe that an international architectural competition of ideas for a new arrival terminal and its environment is the best way to understand what is available to choose from and what to have in the future.”
Experts have until next year to submit their designs.
Also new at the airport will be the Rail Baltica underground train station.
Rail Baltica is a huge new high speed train line, running 540 miles through three countries.
Linking Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, it would be the first of its kind connecting the Baltic states.
Set to cost as much as €24.8billion (£20.4billion), it will also eventually extend to both Poland and Finland.
Three new airports opening in Europe
Luis de Camoes Airport, Portugal
Lisbon will open its new Luis de Camoes Airport by 2034.
The £7billion airport will replace the current Lisbon Airport and welcome 100million passengers by 2050.
Kastelli International Airport, Greece
Kastelli International Airport will become one of the largest in the country when it opens in Crete.
The new airport will welcome up to 10million passengers when it opens in 2027.
New Bodø Airport, Norway
The current Bodø Airport will be replaced by the new £546million New Bodø Airport.
It hopes to open by 2029, welcoming up to 2.3million passengers a year.
Here’s a new airport opening in Europe, with the £25billion mega airport hoping to “take on Heathrow and Dubai“.
And a major UK airport has revealed its £1.1billion renovation plans.