This is bad news for drone enthusiasts in Dubai

After last week's drone debacle in Dubai, which led to the suspension of operations at one of the world's busiest airports for 80 minutes, Emirates airline has requested authorities to consider taking stronger measures, including installing drone detectors.

Penalisation measures: Dubai drone alert: Violators now face arrest besides fines
Airlines, including Emirates, have lost millions of dirhams on each of the three occasions that Dubai International Airport's (DXB) airspace had to be shut down in the past year, not to mention the inconvenience caused by the delays and diversions to thousands of passengers.
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Adel Al Redha, Emirates' Executive Vice-President and Chief Operations Officer, said: "Flight diversions and extensive holding are costly. Financial aspects aside, there is huge inconvenience to passengers, and also a negative impact on Emirates' reputation. Sending an aircraft to an alternative airport and managing delays to arrivals or departures is not as straightforward as it sounds."
Difficult situation: Drone disrupts air traffic at Dubai Airport, 22 flights diverted
And while the proposed fines and penalties need to be stricter, does drone detection really work?
Last year, the US White House had to be put under lockdown twice due to unauthorised drone activity. If it were easy to detect drones, there wouldn't have been a second lockdown.
"The challenge remains the proliferation of drones in kit form, which can be very basic and perhaps below radar detection. It would be difficult to track and trace these devices because they are custom built," says Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research.
Nevertheless, as Al Redha puts it, passenger safety remains Emirates' foremost concern. "Safety is always the number one priority in our business. Ensuring safe flight operations by closing the airspace when there is unauthorised drone activity, or other airspace incursions, is the right thing to do. However, the safety risk from unauthorised drone activity, and the resulting disruption to customers and operations is unacceptable."
(With inputs by Bernd Debusmann Jr.)