Following a short flight suspension on Thursday night at Dublin Airport due to drone activity, Ryanair has demanded the resignation of Transport Minister Eamon Ryan.
Flights were suspended at 6.27 p.m. “due to confirmed drone activity,” the airport had earlier reported.
By 6.59 p.m., flights resumed, and the incident was reported to gardai.
In a statement, Ryanair said Thursday’s incident was the “sixth time in six weeks” that Dublin Airport has been effected by drone activity, “causing multiple diversions and delays to thousands of passengers”.
Three flights were diverted as a result of the incident, according to a tweet from Dublin Airport’s official Twitter account.
Ryanair issued a statement that reads “Despite these repeated closures [Minister for Transport] Eamon Ryan has failed to do anything to prevent Ireland’s main airport from being closed by drones.”
“Dublin Airport is the only major European airport that has been repeatedly closed by drones.”
“Ryanair now calls on [Mr] Ryan to resign if he won’t/can’t fix these avoidable drone closures at Dublin Airport.”
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary added that the disruptions are unacceptable, claiming Mr Ryan has “failed to take any effective action to protect Dublin Airport”.
Mr O’Leary accused the Minister of being “asleep on the job”, adding: “He should now fix this issue or resign and let somebody more effective do the job”.