Munich Airport was shut down again on Friday evening due to suspected drone activity, the airport’s spokesperson confirmed to German press agency dpa.
Air traffic control halted all take-offs and landings at approximately 21:30. A total of 81 flights were affected, with 12 cancelled, 23 diverted to airports in Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Frankfurt, and Vienna, and 46 unable to depart.
Around 6,500 passengers were stranded at the airport overnight. Many spent the night on camp beds set up in the terminals, as flights were expected to resume on Saturday morning.
This marks the second disruption at Germany’s second-largest airport within 24 hours. On the night between Thursday and Friday, operations were also suspended for a few hours after at least one drone was spotted. That earlier incident caused dozens of flight cancellations or diversions, affecting approximately 3,000 travellers, with hundreds spending the night on camp beds.
On Friday, another drone was also reportedly seen flying over a military base in Munich. Meanwhile, similar incidents have occurred elsewhere. During the same night, a drone was observed above Camp Elsenborn, a military training site in Belgium’s Eastern Cantons. Belgian Defence authorities are investigating the sighting.
This incident follows a series of unidentified drone activity that has also been reported recently near airports in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands.
