Florence braces as European bomb-threat wave reaches Tuscany

More than 30 flights across Europe have been diverted or subjected to security alerts since Thursday, according to the Guardian and Deutsche Welle, with multiple planes bound for Rome caught up in the spate of hoaxes. An Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Rome was diverted to a French military airbase after a bomb threat, and subsequent waves of alerts have targeted flights to Rome, Sofia and Prague. No explosives have been found in any of the incidents, the BBC and New York Times reported.

The threats, which claimed to originate from what the Guardian described as "fighters of the Male State"—a far-right Russian group—have rattled passengers and disrupted schedules across the continent. The Italian government responded on Friday, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stating that civilian infrastructures were "under attack" following the wave of hacking incidents and bomb alerts, according to the Local Italy. The EU transport commissioner told the Guardian it remained too early to say whether the threats were linked.

For Tuscany, the disruption carries immediate weight. Florence's airport and the tourist corridors to Rome depend on reliable air connectivity; any sustained disruption to Rome-bound flights ripples through regional tourism and business travel. The New York Times reported that passengers at Rome, Madrid and Warsaw airports expressed frustration more than fear, but the cumulative effect of repeated hoax alerts—now continuing into Friday with fresh threats to Prague and Rome flights—tests both security protocols and traveler confidence during the approach to the winter tourism season.