Munich
airport reopens after halting flights because of drone sightings
Travel
disrupted for thousands on eve of national holiday in latest drone incident to
hit European aviation
Deborah
Cole in Berlin
Fri 3 Oct
2025 10.59 CEST
Munich
airport has reopened after drone sightings over the facility on Thursday
evening forced air traffic control to suspend operations, leading to the
cancellation of 17 flights and disrupting travel for nearly 3,000 passengers in
the German city on the eve of a national holiday.
A further
15 arriving flights were diverted to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Vienna and
Frankfurt, the airport said in a statement, marking the latest drone disruption
to European aviation after sightings temporarily shut airports last week in
Denmark and Norway.
German
air traffic control officials restricted flight operations at Munich airport
from late Thursday evening and then suspended them altogether because of
several drone sightings, the airport added. Staff provided camp beds, blankets
and food to some stranded passengers in the terminals while others were taken
to hotels.
As
operations resumed early on Friday morning, a witness told Reuters passengers
were checking in for a flight to Varna in Bulgaria, and the departure board
showed only a few flights had been cancelled. A flight from Bangkok was the
first of the day to land at about 5.25 am (4.25am BST), according to the
airport’s website.
Bild
newspaper quoted a police spokesperson as saying that because the drones were
seen at night it was too dark to determine their size and type.
The city
was already on edge this week after its popular Oktoberfest was closed
temporarily because of a bomb threat and the discovery of explosives in a
residential building in the north of the city. Authorities later determined
there was no political or religious motive behind the attack targeting the
alleged perpetrator’s family.
The drone
incident highlighted the vulnerability of critical European infrastructure and
occurred before German Unity Day on Friday, a public holiday with increased
travel because of the long weekend, and the final weekend of Oktoberfest.
Denmark
has stopped short of saying who it believes is responsible for the mysterious
drone flights in its airspace last week, which disrupted air traffic at
airports, but European leaders have suggested it could be Russia.
The
European Commission chief, Ursula Von der Leyen, said on Wednesday: “Russia
tries to test us. But Russia also tries to sow division and anxiety in our
societies.”
The
Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said Europe was in its “most
difficult and dangerous situation” since the end of the second world war, as
she hosted EU leaders for talks on aiding Ukraine and firming up European
defence projects intended to ensure the continent is ready to deter invaders by
2030.
At the
meeting, leaders backed plans to bolster the bloc’s defences against Russian
drones.
On
Sunday, a German air defence frigate, FSG Hamburg, arrived in Copenhagen to
contribute to “strengthening Denmark’s airspace surveillance” during the
summits, Danish armed forces said.
The
frigate is part of Nato’s Baltic Sentry mission, which the alliance said last
weekend it intended to strengthen. A Nato spokesperson said there would be
“even more enhanced vigilance” in the Baltic Sea region, including Denmark.
The
Russian president, Vladimir Putin, joked on Thursday that he would no longer
fly drones over Denmark, but Moscow has denied responsibility for the
incidents.
Officials
in Russia and its close ally Belarus acknowledged last month, however, that
some drones used as part of Russia’s war in Ukraine had entered the territory
of the EU and Nato member Poland, prompting a scramble by Polish and Nato
allies in which fighter jets were deployed to shoot them down.
Ukraine’s
president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Europe on Thursday that the recent drone
incursions showed Moscow aimed to “escalate” its aggression.
Jens
Spahn, the parliamentary group leader of Germany’s co-ruling Christian
Democrats, said after the disruption in Munich that Europe needed to
immediately redouble its defence capabilities against drones.
“Instead
of shooting at drones with fighter jets, we need an integrated and agile
technological ecosystem that allows us to respond immediately,” he told the
regional media group Bayern.
“We must
establish a functioning drone defence system as quickly as possible,” he added.
“Now, not in five years’ time.”
Reuters
contributed to this report
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