{"id":467461,"date":"2025-10-02T03:43:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/467461\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T03:43:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T03:43:11","slug":"ryanair-boss-says-drones-disrupting-eu-airports-should-be-shot-down-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/467461\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryanair boss says drones disrupting EU airports should be shot down \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cOur operations were disrupted three weeks ago when drones overflew Poland and the Polish airports were closed for four hours,\u201d said the airline CEO, referring to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/poland-scrambles-fighters-shoots-down-russian-drones-after-airspace-violations-ukraine-warning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an incident attributed to Russia.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast week, it was the Danish airports that were closed for about two hours,\u201d he added, referring to the incursions at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/danish-pm-doesnt-rule-out-russian-involvement-in-airport-drone-attack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Copenhagen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/denmark-closes-airports-after-wave-drone-sightings-across-country\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aalborg<\/a> airports, for which local authorities have not yet identified a perpetrator. \u201cIt\u2019s disruptive, and we\u2019re calling for action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the new urgency to protect European airports, O\u2019Leary believes that a drone wall is not the solution.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"673\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2197227762-1024x673.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7258311\"  \/>Despite the new urgency to protect European airports, O\u2019Leary believes that a drone wall is not the solution. | Patricia De Melo Moreira\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think a drone wall has any effect whatsoever. Do you think the Russians can\u2019t actually launch a drone from inside Poland?\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n<p>Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius put this initiative <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/presscorner\/detail\/en\/statement_25_2231\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at the core of the \u201cEastern Flank Watch,\u201d<\/a> a defense plan among EU eastern frontline countries to shield the entire continent from escalating security threats.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of the informal summit in Copenhagen, where EU heads of state and government will discuss the defense initiative, the budget airline boss expressed skepticism about their plans and credibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no faith in European leaders sitting around drinking tea and eating biscuits,\u201d he said.\u201cIf you can\u2019t even protect overflights over France, what chance do we have of them protecting us against Russia?\u201d he added in reference to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/european-airlines-france-air-traffic-controller-strike-michael-oleary-ryanair\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the cancellation of routes<\/a> overflying France during air traffic control strikes in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no faith in von der Leyen. She\u2019s useless and she should quit,\u201d O\u2019Leary said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cOur operations were disrupted three weeks ago when drones overflew Poland and the Polish airports were closed for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467462,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[18991,4328,18992,44693,473,2595,2000,299,5187,1699,36,2597,770,332,811,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-467461","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-airlines","9":"tag-airports","10":"tag-airspace","11":"tag-andrius-kubilius","12":"tag-defense","13":"tag-drones","14":"tag-eu","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-european","17":"tag-european-union","18":"tag-france","19":"tag-military","20":"tag-poland","21":"tag-russia","22":"tag-security","23":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115302512555649603","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}