The airport began operations in Second Polish Republic on 17 August 1932[1] as Wilno–Porubanek, Porubanek was the name of the neighbouring village which today is part of the Kirtimai district of Vilnius.

[6] Lithuanian Airlines (branded later as FlyLAL) was established as the Lithuanian flag carrier following independence in 1991 and inherited the Vilnius-based Aeroflot fleet of Tupolev Tu-134, Yakovlev Yak-40, Yak-42 and Antonov An-24, An-26 aircraft, but rapidly replaced these Soviet-era aircraft types with modern Boeing 737 and Boeing 757 jets and Saab 340, Saab 2000 turboprops.

flyLAL used to operate to Dublin, Frankfurt, London, Milan and Paris in competition with Aer Lingus, airBaltic or Lufthansa.

[citation needed] Vilnius Airport is the main hub for Grand Cru Airlines and a base for Wizz Air.

The airport was a secondary hub for airBaltic, Estonian Air and Skyways Express until they closed the bases in Vilnius.

[citation needed] On 30 June 2013, Air Lituanica also began its flights from the Vilnius Airport and established its base there serving several European cities.

[10] The building was criticized for its overly luxurious interior design and size, which was unsuitable for the small, nascent civilian air traffic in Vilnius.

[6] In November 2007, the new 1,000 m2 (10,764 sq ft) terminal building was opened for operations which improved the capacity and facilities of the airport and complies with the requirements of the Schengen agreement.

Together with the construction of the new terminal, a redevelopment of road infrastructure is planned, including upgrades of engineering networks and a new transport scheme.

Distance from the Airport to the Vilnius Central Railway Station (LTG Link) is 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi), the journey takes 8 minutes.