Drones were spotted 88 times near aeroplanes in Germany in 2017, according to the air-traffic control centre and pilots.
The German air-traffic control centre in Langen near Frankfurt reported that drones were spotted 70 times nears airports across the country in 2017, while pilots saw a further 18 drones over the year.
The number of incidents had increased, air-traffic control said, but not as much as had been feared.
In 2016 there had been 58 drones spotted at airports as planes took off and landed, with a further six spotted when planes were in the air.
The pilotless flying objects that usually have four rotor blades and an onboard camera are a danger to air traffic, experts said.
In October a drone collided with a passenger plane in Canada, but only caused minor damage; if it had hit the cockpit or one of the engines, it could have been catastrophic.
In 2016 a Lufthansa plane landing at Munich airport was almost hit by a drone.
“We have known for a long time that clearly many people have no idea at all how dangerous a drone flight in the wrong place can be,’’ Ute Otterbein, spokesperson for German air-traffic control, told dpa.
Predictions that more than 100 drones would have near-misses with planes in 2017 in Germany proved to be wrong, but there were “still too many,’’ Otterbein said.
To counter the problem, air-traffic control developed a drone app in the summer of 2017 which is currently being used by 20,000 people.
It has also published a list of locations where drones should not be flown.