Michael O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, criticized EU leaders for their inability to protect airports from drone attacks, calling for the immediate shooting down of unmanned aerial vehicles. He mentioned incidents in Poland and Denmark where drones paralyzed air traffic.
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary criticized EU leaders and called for measures to destroy drones that disrupt European airports. He said this in an interview with Politico, as reported by UNN.
Details
Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary spoke about the European Union's inability to protect its airports from drone attacks. He believes that drones threatening air traffic should be shot down immediately.
Why aren't we shooting down these drones? If a Russian military aircraft flies over NATO airspace, it is intercepted. Why is it different with drones?
– O'Leary said in an interview with Politico.
He mentioned recent incidents: three weeks ago, drones paralyzed Polish airports for four hours, and last week, similar incidents halted operations at Danish airports.
This creates disruptions, and we call for action
– he noted.
Michael O'Leary also expressed doubt about the idea of a "Drone Wall": "I don't think a drone wall has any effect. Do you think the Russians can't launch a drone from Polish territory?" – he said.
The head of Ryanair criticized EU leaders: "I have no faith in European leaders who sit, drink tea and eat cookies. If you can't even protect a flight over France, what chance do you have of protecting us from Russia?"
Violation of EU airspace by drones
In recent weeks, NATO countries have been facing provocations from Russia: fighter jet flights and drones over strategic facilities. These are elements of hybrid warfare aimed at destabilizing and dividing partners.
The first signal came on September 9, when a wave of Russian drones flew into Poland. On September 19, three MiG-31 fighters invaded Estonian airspace and remained there for more than 12 minutes. This was the most serious incident in the country in over 20 years.
A few days later, unknown drones forced the closure of Denmark's main airport and also appeared in the sky over Oslo. Similar incidents were observed over other facilities in Denmark and Sweden, including a military airbase and the Karlskrona archipelago.
Recall
Earlier, President Zelensky proposed to Poland and partners to create a joint shield against Russian air threats, citing Ukraine's experience. He also noted that Russia could have used tankers in the Baltic Sea to launch drones.
In general, the "drone wall" project is based on a "multi-layered drone defense system" called Eirshield, an anti-drone platform developed as part of a joint partnership between the Estonian company DefSecIntel and the Latvian Origin Robotics.
The system will use radars, cameras, radio frequency detectors, the drone's direction of movement, and its threat level to decide whether to jam or block the enemy drone's signal, or whether to hit it with another drone.
Joint air shield against Russian threats and implementation of PURL: what the leaders of Ukraine, Denmark, France, Germany, and Poland discussed02.10.25, 19:39 • 2066 views
