Munich Airport in Germany reopened Saturday morning after officials closed it on Friday evening for the second time in less than twenty-four hours due to alleged drone sightings, the airport said in a statement.
The airport, one of Germany’s largest, reopened gradually beginning at 7 a.m. local time Saturday as against its typical 5 am time.
Despite the airport’s reopening, authorities said delays were expected to continue throughout Saturday.
The situation at the Munich airport comes after the latest mysterious drone overflights in the airspace of European Union member countries.
At least 6,500 passengers were impacted by the overnight closure from Friday into Saturday, the airport said. The previous closure, Thursday night into Friday, affected almost 3,000 passengers and saw some 17 flights grounded.
Authorities were not immediately able to provide any information about who was responsible for the drone flights, but the incident comes in what has been a series of mysterious drone sightings over airports and other critical infrastructure sites in several EU member countries.
On Friday, Belgian authorities said they had spotted drones overnight above a military base in the country. While a drone incident in Oslo, the capital of Norway, which is a NATO member but not part of the EU, also affected flights there late last month.
It wasn’t immediately clear who has been behind the flyovers, but European authorities have expressed concerns that they’re being carried out by Russia, though some experts have noted that anybody with drones could be behind them.
Moscow rejects claims of involvement and denies being behind the drone incursions in Denmark. Last week, President Vladimir Putin described the claim as hysteria.
Meanwhile, Germany’s interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said he and some European counterparts would discuss the drone incursions and a “drone detection and defence plan” at a meeting this weekend in Munich.
“We are in a race between drone threat and drone defence. We want to and must win this race,” he said in the western city of Saarbrücken, where he joined German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony to mark the 35th anniversary of Germany’s reunification.
