Copenhagen Airport, the busiest in the Nordic region, announced it reopened early on Tuesday after drone sightings halted all take-offs and landings for nearly four hours. Similarly, Norway’s Oslo Airport also reopened after a drone sighting prompted a shutdown of its airspace.
“The police have launched an intensive investigation to determine what kind of drones these are,” Copenhagen Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Jakob Hansen told reporters. “The drones have disappeared and we have not taken any of them,” he added. Hansen noted that authorities in Denmark and Norway would cooperate to determine if there was a link between the two incidents.
A spokesperson for Norwegian airport operator Avinor stated that Oslo airport’s airspace was reopened by 3:22 am (0122 GMT). It had been closed since midnight (2200 GMT) due to a drone observation, leading to all flights being diverted to the nearest airport.
Danish police had earlier reported on Monday that two or three large drones were seen flying near Copenhagen’s airport, which led to a complete closure. According to the flight tracking service FlightRadar, the airport halted operations at 8:26 pm (1826 GMT) on Monday. FlightRadar also shared on X (formerly Twitter) that approximately 50 flights were diverted to alternative airports.
After reopening, Copenhagen Airport announced on X that delays and some cancellations would persist and advised passengers to check with their airlines.
These airport shutdowns follow a series of recent disruptions at European airports. Last Friday, a cyberattack on check-in and boarding systems provided by Collins Aerospace, a unit of RTX, affected operations at London’s Heathrow, Berlin, and Brussels airports. Over the weekend and into Monday, the consequences continued to disrupt travel across the region. In 2018, drone sightings over the runway at Gatwick Airport near London stranded tens of thousands of passengers and disrupted hundreds of flights during the busy holiday season.
