Vilnius’ famed hot air balloon flights may become a rarity, as new more restrictive rules are coming into force in autumn. Regulators say they are necessary to avoid air traffic disruptions, while businesses warn this will be a deadly blow to the city’s reputation as the capital of air balloons.
One after another, loud fans rapidly fill balloons with air. As they do almost every evening, a group of balloons is about to rise. The view from the air balloons is breathtaking: the flights are directly over Vilnius, one of the few cities that have hitherto allowed relatively free passage for them.
Tomas Olevson, a veteran balloonist, says that, like for his colleagues, this is probably one of the last chances to fly over Vilnius – Oro Navigacija, the state-owned company that regulates airspace over the country, is tightening the rules that would not allow as many balloons in the sky as now.
Instead of 14 balloons, only groups of seven will be allowed under the new rules, and there will be more restrictions as to where the balloons can go.
“Out of 24 hours, there are only two hours for air balloon flights. That means that flight controllers only have two hours of that more complicated work to coordinate planes with balloons,” says Olevson.
Romanas Mikelevicius, who coordinates balloon flights over Vilnius and has more than thirty years of experience, is convinced that finding a place in the sky would be a great way for everyone.
Disagreements between balloon airmen and Oro Navigacija flared up just before the pandemic, for the same reason as now: more and more planes were landing in Vilnius, it was becoming more complicated to manage traffic in the air, and airlines were complaining about having to make extra circles before they could land.
According to Mikelevicius, however, such cases are quite rare.
“Maybe once a season or even once every three seasons. Costs to the airlines are calculated at 400 euros. Meanwhile, if we are not allowed to fly, for example, ten balloons, then the loss for our companies is about 5,000 euros,” he says.
But Oro Navigcija wants to hedge its bets, as the ever-increasing traffic at Vilnius Airport is creating more and more challenges.
“We have been raising this issue since 2019, and it shouldn’t be news for businesses. They have certainly had time to adapt, to prepare for these things. In any case, we are not restricting balloon flights as such. They will only need to find new routes, new launch sites,” says Saulius Batavicius, head of Oro Navigacija.
Giedrius Leskevicius, a pilot and instructor, says that until now, air balloons could fly over Vilnius in groups of 14. Under the new rules, this will be cut in half. Moreover, the rules specify directions in which balloons will be allowed to fly.
According to Leskevicius, these are not always easy to follow, since balloons follow the direction of winds.
“50% of the flights will have to be cancelled with the reduction in the number of balloons, and then from that there is a further reduction because of the direction restrictions because we are not going to tell the wind to blow only to the west. We fly where the wind blows, we can maneuver safely up and down, but we cannot fly against the wind,” says the pilot and instructor Leskevicius.
Vilnius markets itself as the capital of hot air balloons to tourists. There are a lot of companies providing the rides, so the new more restrictive rules are likely to lead to bankruptcies.
“We have been postponing the introduction of the rules as much as possible, so that it will be the end of the season and so that the balloonists can have additional time of about six months to adapt to the new rules,” says Batavicius, head of Oro Navigacija.
According to the regulator, the new rules will come into force in mid-October. (LRT/Business World Magazine)
