Moscow Airports Lost Up to Nine Hours Daily to Drone Threats

Moscow’s four main airports have grounded operations for nearly every day in October.

Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Zhukovsky, and Vnukovo suspended flights almost daily this month. On some days, the closures lasted as long as nine hours. The independent outlet Agentstvo reported these figures, noting that the disruption has intensified compared to previous months.

Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsiya runs a procedure called the "carpet" protocol that triggers these shutdowns. The rule closes airspace immediately if an aircraft violates boundaries, weapons are fired, or unidentified objects appear in the sky. Oleksandr Laneckij, chief executive of Friendly Avia Support, explained that the system treats every drone as a military threat. He compared the situation to the Houthis in Yemen disrupting Saudi airspace, though he noted Ukraine’s military capabilities are far greater.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set the strategic goal for this campaign in early September. He stated that Ukraine would seek to cut off airspace around Moscow and other Russian destinations. Zelenskyy told airlines, insurers, and travelers directly that Russian airspace would become completely unsafe. The next day, Ukraine sent a matching warning to the International Civil Aviation Organization. Ukraine’s own airspace has remained closed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

Military analyst Jan Matvejev said Ukraine can severely disrupt air traffic with simple, non-explosive drones. He noted that Ukraine’s arms industry produces hundreds of combat-ready long-range drones daily. Simon Shuster of The Atlantic wrote in October that Ukraine’s efforts are just getting started. Matvejev argued that Russian air defenses are not fully effective, stating that if it were possible to shoot the drones down, Russia would have done so by now.

Experts warn that the current protocol creates risks for civilian flights. Laneckij said Russia might lower the threshold for declaring the carpet protocol, increasing the danger of deadly incidents. He referenced the 2024 Christmas day crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines flight, which investigators say was hit by a Russian air-defense missile fired to counter drones. That incident killed 38 people. Matvejev said little has changed in Russia’s air-defense protocol since that crash.

Matvejev distinguished between machine gun fire and missile defense. Against a low-flying drone identified visually, the risk to aircraft from machine gun fire is extremely low. Missiles, however, present a different danger because mass production defects could send one toward a nearby airliner. He added that a drone flown from Ukraine to Moscow must be fairly large, weighing dozens of kilograms, meaning a collision can be serious even without explosives.

The disruption has not been limited to Moscow. Ukrainian forces attacked Pskov airport in the summer of 2023. Earlier this month, drone debris fell on Sochi airport. Russia has also struck Ukrainian airports. In September, Zelenskyy said Kyiv’s airport and Boryspil, near the capital, were hit.

Foreign airlines face difficult decisions about whether to keep flying to Russia. Laneckij said the decision depends on the military threat, demand, and insurance costs. If insurers rate the risk as very high, they could sharply raise premiums, which would send ticket prices soaring. Competition in Russia’s aviation market has already shrunk because many airlines have gone out of business. This has pushed up demand for seats on the remaining foreign carriers. Laneckij said whether they stay depends on the price they have to pay for the danger faced.