Ryanair has taken to social media to hit out at what they perceive as transport minister Eamon Ryan’s inaction over the ongoing drone issue at Dublin Airport which disrupted travel throughout the bank holiday weekend.
The budget airline, known for its engaging and often humorous Twitter posts, took to the microblogging platform to post the well-known picture of Eamon Ryan apparently asleep in a Dáil sitting at the Convention Centre during Covid-19 alongside the caption, “Asleep again Eamon Ryan, three days of drone disruption”.
The picture aimed to highlight the lack of effort taken to curb the ongoing issue of drones at the airport. It comes following several days of disruption at the airport over the Bank Holiday weekend due to drones flying over the airspace. Flights have been disrupted on three occasions since last Friday.
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On Monday evening, Dublin Airport advised that flights were suspended for safety reasons after a drone was spotted flying nearby. Flights were suspended for 40 minutes, with a number of flights diverted to Shannon and Belfast.
The picture of Eamon Ryan asleep was a quote retweet of a statement posted by Ryanair three days prior where they called on the minister to “step up” in regards to the ongoing issue at Ireland’s busiest airport.
In the statement posted on February 4, Ryanair said: “Over the last two days, eight Ryanair flights and over 700 passengers travelling to/from Dublin were disrupted by apparent drone activity - this is completely unacceptable!
“We're now calling on the Dept of Transport under Eamon Ryan to step up and take action to prevent further drone disruptions at Ireland's primary airport.”
On Tuesday morning, the minister warned that anyone flying drones near Dublin Airport will be arrested and that the Gardaí will "come down heavy" on them.
“They will be subject to the guards coming down, in my mind, heavy because it creates huge disruption, there are real safety issues. We will make sure working with the guards and the airport that everything is done to try and stop it,” the minister said.
In a subsequent update, a statement from the Department of Transport said Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan TD and Minister of State at the Department of Transport with responsibility for International and Road Transport and Logistics, Jack Chambers TD "are concerned at the impact on the travelling public of delayed and diverted flights."
A spokesperson continued: "The Ministers are convening a meeting this evening at which they will be briefed on recent incidents at Dublin Airport and ongoing efforts to address illegal use of drones in the vicinity of the airport.
"The Ministers will meet with representatives from Dublin Airport Authority, the Irish Aviation Authority, the Department of Justice and an Garda Siochana. The relevant authorities continue to investigate the incidents."
The statement concluded: "There are EU and national rules in place around the use of drones, including an exclusion zone of 5km around airports. The misuse of drones is an offence, and flying drones in controlled airspace or within 5km of an airport is a serious matter."
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