Dublin Airport calls for new legislation for counter drone technology

DAA, the operator of Dublin Airport, has called for new legislation and a State agency responsible for managing counter drone technology after it was forced to suspend temporarily flights on Thursday evening.

Dublin Airport suspended flight operations on Thursday night for 30 minutes as a result of drone activity in the area.

In a tweet just after 6.30pm, Dublin Airport said: “Due to confirmed drone activity, flight operations at Dublin Airport have been suspended. Further updates to follow.”

Flight operations resumed just before 7pm, and a spokesman for the airport said the gardaí were “immediately advised”.

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“Three flights were diverted discommoding passengers as a result of this reckless and illegal activity of flying a drone within 5km of Dublin Airport,” the tweet said.

A spokesman for DAA said the diverted flights were inbound, two of which were to Shannon, with the other to Belfast international.

“Drones causing disruptions at airports is a statewide issue that needs to be tackled with new legislation, a State agency responsible for managing counter drone technology and harsher sentences,” the spokesman added.

It is the latest such incident of the small, remote control aircraft being spotted in the skies surrounding the airport and disrupting aircraft schedules.

In a statement on Thursday night, Ryanair said this was the sixth time in six weeks that flights were suspended due to drone disruption, and called on Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan to resign if he can’t fix the issue.

Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, said it is “unacceptable flights and hundreds of passengers have again suffered disruptions and diversions”.

“Minister Ryan should explain why other European airports have effective drone measures in place but Dublin Airport keeps being closed,” he added.

Aer Lingus also previously issued a statement on the topic, describing the repeated disruption as “very concerning”.

“The severe disruption imposed on passengers, airlines and other stakeholders is unacceptable and measures to address the drone issue must be now expedited in order to prevent any further recurrence of this type of disruption,” the Aer Lingus statement said.