Emirates flights to Gatwick face diversion, delays as airport suffers drone disruption

Dubai airline Emirates has confirmed that its flights to London Gatwick have been affected after the airport suspended flights due to disruption caused by drones on Thursday.

“Emirates can confirm its flight EK11 was diverted to London Heathrow on December 20, 2018 due to London Gatwick airport closure,” an Emirates spokesperson said.

Its fight EK15 to London Gatwick also departed Dubai with a delay of 1 hour 43 minutes.

“Emirates apologises for the inconvenience caused but the safety and well-being of our passengers and crew is of utmost importance and will not be compromised,” the spokesperson added.

Operations at one of the UK’s busiest airports were suspended on Wednesday night and on Thursday after drones were spotted over the airfield.

The airport grounded outbound flights and diverted incoming flights to destinations including Paris and Amsterdam.

“Following reports of two drones flying over the Gatwick Airport airfield at around 9pm, the airfield was closed from 9.03pm on Wednesday December 19 to 3.01am on Thursday December 20,” the airport said in a statement.

“Further sighting of drones in the vicinity of the airport meant that the runway had to be closed again from 3.45am. We are still investigating these alongside Sussex Police.

“Unfortunately, this has led to a number of flights being diverted to other airports and all flight arrivals and departures are currently suspended from Gatwick,” it added.

The airport said its airlines were working to provide affected passengers with hotel accommodation or transport passengers landing at other airports to Gatwick by other means.

“Gatwick staff are looking after passengers in our terminals,”it stated.

“We apologise to any affected passengers for this inconvenience but the safety of our passengers and all staff is our number one priority.”

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— Gatwick Airport LGW (@Gatwick_Airport) December 20, 2018