Dublin Airport 'confident' about handling passenger queues

Dublin Airport is preparing for a busy bank holiday weekend after hundreds of passengers missed flights last weekend

Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has said it is "confident" passengers will get on their flights on time this weekend, despite major problems last weekend.

About 1,400 of its passengers missed flights due to long queues last Sunday.

Since then, it has advised passengers to allow an extra hour to get through the airport if they have hold luggage.

Graeme McQueen from the DAA said: "If you stick to those times, we're confident that we can get you through in plenty of time this weekend."

Mr McQueen, the organisation's media relations manager, was speaking to Irish broadcaster RTÉ.

The airport's management has faced widespread criticism since Sunday when large queues formed outside the airport, with passengers having to wait in line just to get into terminal buildings.

Many of the problems were due to a lack of available security staff to screen passengers before their flights.

Customers have concerns about their travel plans this weekend as there are bank holidays in the UK on Thursday and Friday and on Monday in the Republic of Ireland.

In response, the airport has rostered 40 additional security staff and will be redeploying 450 of its office workers to help manage queues.

The office workers are part of a 600-strong taskforce of non-frontline staff which has been in place since April.

Up to six staff from Cork Airport are also being re-assigned to Dublin Airport to cover this weekend's expected surge in holiday travel.

When should passengers arrive?

There are new rules for passengers with bags that need to be checked in as hold luggage

Kevin Cullinane, the DAA's Group Head of Communications, has advised passengers who need to check their bags in as hold luggage to "allow up to an additional hour" to get through Dublin Airport.

That means passengers on short-haul flights should arrive two and half hours before their flight as usual if they have hand luggage only, or three and half hours if checking hold bags.

For long-haul flights, passengers need to be in the terminal three and half hours before departure, or four and a half hours if they have hold luggage.

Asked to confirm when this change was introduced, the DAA said: "The current advice regarding one hour extra for baggage has been in place since last Sunday. Our passenger advice will remain under continual review over the coming days and weeks."

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But what is the point of arriving more than four hours before a flight if you cannot check your hold baggage when you get there?

Too early?

Speaking to the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme, Mr Cullinane said the DAA was "working with each individual airline" to try and get their check-in desks opened earlier.

But he said 80% of Dublin Airport's passengers fly with either Ryanair or Aer Lingus and he pointed out that Ryanair's check-in desk opened at 02:30 local time on Thursday, while the Aer Lingus desk was operating by 03:00.

Kevin Cullinane is the DAA's Group Head of Communications

Mr Cullinane also appealed to passengers not to travel to the airport "too early" for their flights as this had contributed to the problems at the airport last weekend.

"Last week we were having passengers presenting at the airport five, six, and in some instances 12 hours before the departure of their flight," he said.

"They were then getting into queues in advance of passengers that had more immediate flights."

The DAA has come in for severe criticism from passengers and politicians because of the scenes at the airport on Sunday.

Its chief executive Dalton Phillips was asked to appear before the Irish parliament's transport committee to explain the situation and provide solutions.

Mr Dalton conceded that the company had cut its security staff "too deeply" during the pandemic.

Passengers had to queue outside Dublin Airport on Sunday 29 May

On Thursday, Mr Cullinane told the BBC: "This weekend we'll have an additional 40 staff working, which means we'll have more security lanes open, we'll have better queue management, so we're doing everything in our power to ensure that the scenes that people saw last week, last Sunday at Dublin Airport, aren't repeated."

"So with those mitigations in place, extra staff being brought up from Cork Airport as well to work security lines, in addition to the 40 additional Dublin Airport staff that will be working - which is on top of the normal 260 security officers that will be deployed."

He added: "Four hundred and fifty additional workers at Dublin Airport in office environments will be deployed to help in that queue management and in that security process, so we will be doing our level best to make sure every passenger makes their flight this holiday weekend and indeed over the busy summer months ahead."

The DAA later explained the office workers were part of an existing taskforce of 600 non-frontline staff "who have each been doing multiple four-hour shifts to bolster our security operations".

The taskforce has completed more than 2,000 shifts since it was set up in April.

"Our taskforce will be deployed throughout the coming weekend, as they were last weekend. We have 40 additional security officers rostered this weekend - a 10% increase in staffing numbers versus last weekend," the DAA statement said.