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"The winning bidder is a Latvian-Lithuanian consortium, led by A.C.B., that submitted the lowest-price bid," Donatas Voveris, head of airport network at Lietuvos Oro Uostai (Lithuanian Airports), the operator of the country's three major international airports, said on Monday.

"The companies face a major challenge and responsibility of performing at a large volume of complex work that requires punctuality and diligence within a very short period of time," he said.

Voveris said that the cost of the runway reconstruction, previously estimated at around 24 mln euro, had been brought down by competition.

Other bidders included a consortium of Kauno Tiltai and Panevezio Keliai (19.688 mln euros) and a consortium of Fegda, Eurovia Lietuva and Lemminkainen Lietuva (21.393 mln euros). A 24.706-mln-euro bid by Poland's Budimex jointly with Kauno Keliai was rejected, Agne Mazeikyte, communications project manager at Lietuvos Oro Uostai, told.

The runway reconstruction is scheduled to start on Jul. 14 and be completed on Aug. 18. The majority of flights will be temporarily moved to Kaunas, some 100 kilometers away from Vilnius.