Russia is accused of having targeted thousands of planes carrying British tourists with a “dangerous” jamming tactic designed to scramble satnavs.
The attacks are said to compromise the navigation systems of aircraft, leaving their route and exact location unclear.
According to The Sun, in the eight months until the end of March, 2,309 Ryanair flights and 1,368 Wizz Air flights reported satnav issues while flying through the Baltic region.
A further 82 British Airways flights, seven Jet2 flights, and four EasyJet flights also reported issues.
The incidents - suspected to be caused by Russian interference - have increased massively, from below 50 incidents a week in 2023 to more than 350 per week last month, The Sun reports.
A total of 46,000 aircraft reported satnav issues over the Baltic Sea in the eight months until the end of March, found an investigation by the newspaper, together with GPSJAM.com.
The website says jamming is not conclusively the cause of the GPS issues, but told The Sun: “Areas where a significant percentage of aircraft report low navigation accuracy seem to correlate well with areas of known and suspected jamming.”
The Sun found Virgin Atlantic, which does not fly through the Baltic region, was the only major UK flight provider that was not affected.
A Nato official told the New Scientist last month: “We have seen an increase in GPS jamming since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, and allies have publicly warned that Russia has been behind GPS jamming…affecting aviation and shipping.
“Russia has a track record of jamming GPS signals and has a range of capabilities for electronic warfare.”
Luc Tytgat, boss of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), told The Sun: “We have seen a sharp rise in attacks on these systems, which poses a safety risk.”
Passengers are not typically aware when their plane’s navigation system is jammed.
Last month, Russia is believed to have jammed the satellite signal on an aircraft carrying defence minister Grant Shapps as he returned to Britain from Poland.
According to a government source and journalists who were travelling with Mr Shapps at the time, the GPS signal was interfered with for about 30 minutes while the plane flew close to Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
Mobile phones could no longer connect to the internet and the aircraft was forced to use alternative methods to determine its location, they said.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: "It didn't threaten the safety of the aircraft and it is not unusual for aircraft to experience GPS jamming near Kaliningrad, which is of course Russian territory."
A defence source told The Times at the time: “While the RAF are well prepared to deal with this, it still puts an unnecessary risk on civilian aircraft and could potentially endanger people’s lives.
“There is no excuse for this and it’s wildly irresponsible on Russia’s part.”
Responding to The Sun’s investigation, a Ryanair spokesperson told the newspaper: “If any location systems, such as GPS, are not functioning then the crew switch to alternate systems.”
Easyjet also said procedures are in place to protect against GPS issues.
Glenn Bradley, from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, told The Sun: “There are several safety protocols in place to protect navigation systems on commercial aircraft.
“GPS jamming does not directly impact the navigation of an aircraft and while it’s a known issue, this does not mean an aircraft has been jammed deliberately.
“While operators have mitigations in place to assure continued safe operations, we work closely with other aviation regulators, airlines and aircraft manufacturers to curb and mitigate any risks posed by jamming and continuously monitor incidents worldwide.”
The EASA has been approached by the Standard.
