Munich Airport in Germany was forced to halt operations for nearly seven hours overnight following a series of drone sightings, marking the latest disruption at a European aviation hub due to unexplained drone activity.
The closure began shortly after 10 p.m. local time on Thursday, grounding 17 flights and affecting close to 3,000 passengers, the airport said in a statement.
An additional 15 incoming flights were rerouted to German cities including Stuttgart, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt, as well as Vienna in Austria.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar showed several planes circling Munich around 11 p.m. before diverting to alternative airports.
The airport reopened at 5 a.m. local time once authorities deemed it safe for flights to resume.
“Now everything has resumed. Some flights were cancelled but the airport has reopened. Since 5 a.m, all arrivals and departures are safe,” a call handler responding to passenger inquiries told CNN.
According to the airport’s website, the first aircraft to land after the reopening was a Lufthansa long-haul flight from Bangkok, scheduled for 5:25 a.m.
Munich, located in Bavaria in southern Germany, is a major hub for Lufthansa and served nearly 20 million passengers in the first half of this year.
A Lufthansa spokesperson told CNN that 19 of its flights were either cancelled or diverted due to the shutdown, including three long-haul flights to Asia, which will be rescheduled.
The airline provided affected travelers with food, drinks, and blankets, with agency photos showing passengers resting on rows of camp beds.
CNN has reached out to Bavarian state police, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office, and the domestic intelligence agency for comment.
Drones Stir Alarm Across Western Europe
Munich is the latest in a string of European airports disrupted by drone sightings. Recent incidents in Denmark and Norway have affected tens of thousands of passengers, prompting Denmark to ban all civil drone flights as it prepared to host a summit of European leaders in Copenhagen focused on support for Ukraine and European security.
At the summit, leaders were expected to discuss measures to protect European skies, including the “drone wall” initiative, a layered network of detection and interception systems designed to enhance existing anti-drone capabilities across EU member states.
Europe has remained on high alert amid recent drone sightings and alleged incursions by Russian drones into NATO airspace over Poland and Romania, alongside claims of Russian fighter jets violating Estonian airspace.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen commented on the ongoing threat: “We can at least conclude that there is primarily one country that poses a threat to Europe’s security and that is Russia.”
The Kremlin has denied involvement in the drone incidents as well as the alleged Estonian airspace violation. During a four-hour televised event on Thursday addressing various issues with Europe and the US, Russian President Vladimir Putin mocked Western claims about Russian involvement in drone flights over Denmark, suggesting they were part of NATO efforts “to inflame tensions to boost the defense spending.”
“I won’t anymore. Not to France, not to Denmark, not to Copenhagen,” he joked regarding the drone allegations. However, he also issued a veiled warning, “We are carefully watching the growing militarization of Europe. Is all of this just words or is it time for us to take countermeasures? No one should have doubt that Russia’s countermeasures will not take a long time to come.”
Munich, a historic city of more than one million people, was already on edge after its famed Oktoberfest beer festival was briefly closed earlier this week due to a bomb threat.
