Daniel McConnell: Ryan’s response to Dublin Airport drone chaos has been disastrous

A warning sign against the use of drones at Dublin Airport.

JUST picture it. At the end of a long day, you are on a flight back to Dublin Airport from overseas.

You just want to get home and your anticipation rises as your plane begins its final descent toward the runway, only to pull away at the last minute.

You are then told because of drone activity the airport is now shut and you are being diverted to Belfast some 160km away or Shannon — which is even further.

You’d go nuts.

On Thursday, in a tweet just after 6.30pm, Dublin Airport said: “Due to confirmed drone activity, flight operations at Dublin Airport have been suspended. Further updates to follow.”

A short time later at 7.08pm, a clearly vexed Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary posted a video in response to the developments, launching a blistering attack on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.

So what, you may say, given O’Leary and his airline’s constant barbing of the Green Party leader since taking office in 2020?

Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has launched a blistering attack on Eamon Ryan, above, and called for the minister for transport to resign.

But O’Leary rounded on Ryan’s failure to prevent the sixth suspension of airport operations at Dublin Airport due to drone activity at or near the airfield.

He said that because of the drone activity, three Ryanair flights had to be diverted to Shannon and Belfast.

That is roughly about 600 passengers affected by the actions of idiots who have decided it is amusing to target planes as they are nearing the airport.

On a previous weekend in February, up to six flights were forced to divert, at considerable expense and disruption to many hundreds of passengers.

It’s unacceptable that more Ryanair flights and hundreds of passengers have again suffered disruptions and diversions as Dublin Airport is now closed for a sixth time in six weeks by drones, O’Leary blasted as he stood in his operations centre.

O’Leary then called on “incompetent minister” Ryan to resign if he can’t fix the issue. “Minister Ryan should explain why other European airports have effective drone measures in place but Dublin Airport keeps being closed,” he added. He said that Ryan has failed to take any effective action to protect Dublin Airport, and his strategy of holding “meetings” is useless.

Michael O'Leary has accused Eamon Ryan of being 'incompetent'.

“As always Minister Ryan promises ‘stronger measures’ but delivers nothing,” he added.

When the last spate of diversions happened, Ryan was subject to a similar barrage of criticism from Ryanair and airport’s operating company, Daa. At that time, Ryan denied accusations by Ryanair that he is “asleep at the wheel” and insisted his department is doing everything in its power to find a remedy to the situation at Dublin Airport. “We are doing everything we can including a further meeting this morning with Dublin Airport Authority, ” Ryan said.

Given the latest incident, such protestations from the minister ring extremely hallow, it must be said. And while I have not always been his biggest fan, O’Leary asked a fair question.

Why do other European airports have effective drone measures in place, but Dublin Airport keeps being closed, he asked.

Ryan is all talk and no action when it comes to drone closures, O’Leary said, as he described the situation as “unacceptable”.

He called on Ryan to ensure freedom for passengers travelling to Dublin from such drone activities.

“Minister Ryan, it’s time to stop talking, stop sitting on your hands and do something useful for a change,” he added.

Mr O’Leary asks that Mr Ryan takes viable action and encouraged customers with delayed flights to hold him accountable, by contacting him about the disruption caused by constant drone strikes.

O’Leary was not alone in venting his fury as Aer Lingus demanded a step change in urgency from the key stakeholders charged with managing this critical issue (Dublin Airport, the regulator and Department of Transport).

“Processes and technology are urgently required to prevent these events happening in the first place and to minimise the disruption if they do happen. This is the third drone incident in a matter of weeks, creating a level of disruption that is both concerning and unacceptable.”

The Daa, of which O’Leary has also been a frequent critic, weighed in and called for new legislation and a State agency responsible for managing counter-drone technology.

A warning sign against the use of drones at Dublin Airport.

For many weeks now, Ryan has been pleading an inability to do much about this despicable behaviour, saying that putting an end to such activity “is not easy”. Seemingly ruling out the calls from the Daa and others to shoot the bloody things out of the sky, Ryan appeared to favour an approach of using technology to disable them.

But weeks on and the interruptions continue, and Ryan’s position looks increasingly silly.

He appears powerless even though there is already very powerful legislation in place with sentences of up to life in prison for those convicted of endangering aircraft by flying drones within 5km of the airport. yet these incidents continue.

We have had calls from the likes of Labour’s Duncan Smith for greater patrols around the airport campus by airport police and An Garda Siochana. Given the frequency of these incidents, such calls are legitimate and extremely valid.

The lack of urgency or even the desire to do anything more than talk from the minister is alarming, particularly when you consider how important aviation connectivity is to Ireland as an island nation on the edge of Europe.

The bottom line is that we as a country cannot afford to tolerate such activity.

We know that at least two men have been arrested and charged and we know that in recent years Dublin has not been on its own when it comes to such incidents.

There were reports of drones near airports in Dubai, Copenhagen, and Heathrow in London in recent years.

But these were dwarfed by a major incident at Gatwick airport when between December 19 and 21, 2018, hundreds of flights were cancelled following reports of drone sightings close to the runway.

With 140,000 passengers and 1,000 flights affected, it was the biggest disruption at Gatwick since its closure following the 2010 volcano eruptions in Iceland.

While the interruptions at Dublin have been relatively minor in comparison to the Gatwick incident, the frequency of them now opens up Ryan and the Government to legitimate criticism of staggering passivity.

Put simply, it is not good enough to stand by and allow so many planes to be interfered with and cause them to be diverted hundreds of miles away.

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These incidents pose a verifiable threat to this country’s security and surely either An Garda Siochana or the Defence Forces are well within their rights to use appropriate force to remove these objects from the sky.

There have been calls from some quarters for the army to be used to shoot down drones and for greater penalties.

Ryan is ultimately unlikely to listen to O’Leary’s calls to resign but he must put an end to this madness or further risk damaging Ireland’s aviation reputation which took such a hammering last summer on his watch.