Druskininkai Station Balloon Flies Tests, Opening Date Not Set

Druskininkai's helium balloon was filled for the first time on Friday, September 25, 2026, and made its first test lifts on Sunday, September 27, Kautra, the station's operator, said. On October 9, 15min reported that the station and the balloon are still closed to visitors and that no opening date has been named.

The balloon was filled on September 25, a day after the date first reported

FM99 reported on September 22 that filling would start at 17:00 local time on Thursday, September 24, and take at least four hours. AlytusPlius and Kautra reported the balloon taking its permanent shape on Friday, September 25. AlytusPlius put the fill at about four hours.

Kautra said preparing the balloon took almost a week and involved more than 50 people. Specialists from Aerophile, a French maker of tethered helium balloons, were among them.

The first test lifts reached nearly 200 m, and weather decides every flight

Kautra said the first test flights took place on Sunday, September 27, and that the balloon rose to nearly 200 m. It runs on an electric winch and stays tethered to the station structure, and it can carry up to 30 people at once.

15min's report puts the ride height at more than 150 m. Kautra's Druskininkai development head, Aistė Povilauskaitė, told FM99 that wind, rain and temperature all affect the lifts, so even a booked flight can be cancelled. "We can reserve the balloon, but not the weather," she said on FM99. Kautra is building an online system that will show whether lifts are running on a given day.

Kautra promised an October opening, and on October 9 no date was named

At the filling on September 25, Kautra chief executive Linas Skardžiukas told AlytusPlius that the official opening would be in October. On October 9, 15min reported that Povilauskaitė expects the first visitors this year, with no start date announced and no ticket prices named.

Kautra's release says the station at Gardino Street 1 opens this year and that flights start once it does, when the weather allows. Pilot training continues until then.

The station is a timber building with a meadow on its roof

Povilauskaitė called the station the largest timber building in Lithuania. Architect Gintaras Balčytis designed it, and Kautra says the project cost more than 14 million euros. The 2,300 sq m complex is planned to hold shops, cafés, an events amphitheatre and a reflexology path, with an Alpine meadow on the roof.

Druskininkai's other balloons came from Belarus

On February 6, 2026, border guards intercepted seven contraband balloons in Varėna, Lazdijai and Druskininkai in a single day, the most in one day that year at the time. Five months later, border guards intercepted four contraband drones at Druskininkai in one night. The drones carried more than 5,000 packs of cigarettes.

The station balloon is announced in advance, tethered, and lifted from inside the new station building. Those earlier balloons and drones were released in Belarus and crossed the border.

AirVeto's live map tracks current wind conditions over the Baltic region and Druskininkai.