According to media reports in the United Arab Emirates, the authorities were forced to temporarily suspend operations at Dubai International Airport (DXB) due to illegal drone activity near the airfield. A government spokesperson said flights could neither takeoff or land for around half an hour between 10:13am to 10:45am this morning before the airport was eventually given the all-clear.
The airport, which is the hub for Emirates and flydubai, is one of the busiest in the world and handled around 900,000 passengers in 2018 alone. Despite that figure being slightly below the airport’s ambitious forecast, Dubai International Airport still hopes to one day beat Atlanta Hartsfield as the busiest airport in the world.
Dubai Airports confirms that operations at Dubai International are back to normal after less than 30 minutes of delay due to unauthorized drone activity.
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) February 15, 2019
DXB already holds the record as the busiest airport for international passengers but it will face stiff competition from the likes of Beijing Capital Airport and the new Istanbul Airport as it vies to be the world’s number one.
Illegal drone activity has been a major issue for airport’s around the world – especially in light of a pre-Christmas shutdown at London’s Gatwick airport which reportedly cost airlines in excess of $64 million. Passengers were delayed for several days after authorities struggled to find either the drone or operator despite numerous sightings.
A similar incident occurred at Heathrow Airport just a week later, although on that occasion airport police declared an all-clear after around 30 minutes. Dubai International Airport has itself faced similar disruption, with drone sightings in 2016 leading to the temporary closure of the airfield.
Lawmakers have called for tougher penalties in a bid to clamp down on the behavior while airports are spending millions of dollars on anti-drone devices – many of which were originally designed for use on the battlefield in Afghanistan and Iraq.
