Dubai airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, was forced to suspend all flights for about 30 minutes on Friday morning due to suspected drone activity, a spokesperson said.
A hub for airlines Emirates, Dubai airport served 81.4 million passengers in the first 11 months of 2018.
The suspension lasted from 10:13 local time to 10:45 a.m. (7:13 a.m. – 7:45 a.m. CET).
The issue of drones impacting commercial air traffic has taken on new urgency after reports of sightings around airports in Britain and the United States.
In January, flights from London’s Heathrow airport were halted for about an hour after a drone was sighted. Sightings also temporarily halted arrivals at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.
Gatwick Airport, London’s second busiest airport, was severely disrupted by drone activity in December.
Passengers at Dubai took to Twitter to complain about Friday’s delay.
“Stuck for ages at Dubai airport runway unable to taxi as unauthorized drones have entered the airspace here and all takeoffs have been grounded!” Twitter user @anushwij wrote.
