Flights cancelled at Moscow airports for second consecutive night due to drone attacks

Moscow airports once again introduced restrictions on the arrival and departure of flights on the evening of 16 October and the night of 16-17 October due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks. Over 350 flights were delayed or cancelled, most of them at Sheremetyevo.

Source: Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian media outlet

Details: Some planes flying to Moscow landed in other cities. For instance, at least two flights – operated by Aeroflot and Flydubai – were diverted to Nizhny Novgorod. Passengers are being transported to Moscow by bus.

A flight from Antalya to Moscow landed in St Petersburg, where passengers were told it would continue to its intended destination once the drone threat had passed. Passengers complained that they had been kept on board for several hours without food and given only water.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported on social media that 140 drones flying towards the city had been destroyed since midnight.

Meduza notes that at least 200 flights had been delayed at Moscow airports the day before, also due to the threat of drones.

Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg also suspended operations due to the drone threat. According to Fontanka, a St Petersburg-based news outlet, at least 16 flights there had been delayed for at least two hours.

A Red Sea Airlines plane flying from Hurghada to St Petersburg landed in Helsinki due to the closed airport, Astra reports.

Background: The number of delays of regular passenger flights in Russia lasting more than two hours doubled in the first nine months of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.

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