Rosaviatsia, Russia's federal air transport agency, reported that Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky stopped accepting and dispatching flights on the evening of October 15. The restrictions were lifted only on the morning of October 16. At Pulkovo, the ban remained in effect until 9 a.m., according to Fontanka.
Nearly 200 flights were delayed or canceled in total. Moscow's airports accounted for about 160: 79 at Sheremetyevo, 66 at Vnukovo, ten at Zhukovsky and two at Domodedovo, the Moscow news agency calculated from online departure boards. At Pulkovo, 37 departing and nine arriving flights were canceled or delayed.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense forces had shot down 94 Ukrainian drones heading toward the city since the evening of October 15. Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said four drones were downed over the region.
Aeroflot said it rescheduled some flights and canceled others, and diverted a number of aircraft to alternate airfields. A FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Vnukovo landed at Pulkovo, and passengers were offered bus transport to Moscow, according to Ostorozhno, Novosti. The same flight was diverted on October 14, when it landed in Nizhny Novgorod.
Moscow's airports have been closing more frequently in October. Over the first 14 days, the four airports were closed for a combined 101 hours, Agentstvo calculated. For all of September, the figure was 46 hours.
The Atlantic journalist Simon Shuster, citing sources, wrote that Ukraine's campaign to paralyze Russian airports "is only beginning." According to his information, Kyiv is trying to complicate the use of airspace around Russian airports with long-range drones, but Zelensky has not yet approved an initial plan with more aggressive tactics.