Denmark reopens airports after overnight drone incursion, says attack was ‘professional & hybrid’

Denmark has reopened the airports after authorities closed them after drones were sighted in its airspace on Thursday morning, the second such security incident in the Nordic country this week.

The Danish police said that Billund airport, Denmark’s second biggest, was closed for an hour, while Aalborg, used for commercial and military flights, was closed for three hours due to drone incursions.

Drones had also been observed near airports in Esbjerg and Sonderborg, as well as Skrydstrup airbase, home to some of Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets. All five are located on the Jutland peninsula in western Denmark.

The Danish national police said that the drones exhibited a similar pattern to those that had disrupted flights at Copenhagen Airport for four hours just days earlier. They added that the country’s armed forces were also impacted, as Aalborg Airport, which was affected, serves as a military base.

Earlier this week, on Tuesday, Denmark said that the incident at the  Copenhagen Airport was the most serious attack on its infrastructure yet, connecting the drone sightings to previous Russian incursions and disruptions across Europe.

‘Hybrid attack’

Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen held a press conference on Thursday, saying that the drone incursions were done professionally, adding that they looked systematic and hybrid in nature.

“There can be no doubt that everything points to this being the work of a professional actor when we are talking about such a systematic operation in so many locations at virtually the same time,” he said.

“This is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones,” he added.

While it is not yet clear who was behind the drone attacks, Poulsen has ruled out Russian involvement in the recent incident.

Copenhagen disruption

According to Eurocontrol, at least 50 flights were cancelled, while more than 50 others were diverted to airports in Denmark and southern Sweden, including Billund, Aarhus, Malmö and Gothenburg. Flight-tracking site Flightradar24 reported that at least 35 planes bound for Copenhagen had to change course.

Minutes after the incident in Denmark, drones were also reported over parts of Norway and Sweden. Norwegian police confirmed a drone sighting near Oslo Airport, forcing air traffic onto a single runway “for safety reasons.”

Nato warns Russia

Nato said it was “too early to say” whether Russia was responsible, but warned Moscow to stop an “escalatory” pattern of airspace violations along its eastern flank.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced what he called a Russian violation of Denmark’s airspace in a message on X.

Danish intelligence said the Scandinavian country was facing a “high threat of sabotage”.

“Someone may not necessarily want to attack us, but rather stress us out and see how we react,” said Flemming Drejer, director of operations at Denmark’s intelligence service PET.

With inputs from agencies