Dublin Airport: What's causing delays and what's being done?

There has been chaos at Dublin Airport in recent days with long queues causing about 1,400 passengers to miss their flights last Sunday.

It prompted the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to introduce measures ahead of the busy June bank holiday.

The DAA said it was increasing staff and adding more security lanes, in a bid to improve queue management.

But what led to this situation, and will things improve for the busy summer months ahead?

Staffing

Under mounting political pressure, the airport's authority told an Irish parliament committee on Wednesday it would have an additional 40 security staff in place this weekend, including some from Cork Airport.

It also said it would operate a triage system when terminals get busy.

That means priority will be given to those whose departures are most imminent with those arriving too early asked to wait in a special holding area.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the DAA reduced its workforce by 25%.

Jerry Brennan, from Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union (SIPTU), said "those who remain have been working extremely hard since December".

"They've been doing their own rosters and also coming in to work additional hours."

There were queues outside both terminals last Sunday

Mr Brennan said security staff were now in a "state of fatigue".

He urged passengers to remember that the issues seen at the airport were not the fault of security staff, describing the "horrendous" situation faced by workers.

"They're taking the brunt of it," he said.

"There has been occasions when staff have been spat at, people have thrown plastic trays at them.

"It's a very difficult situation and they're doing their best to try and get people through as quickly as possible and none of this situation is of there making."

When speaking to the committee on Wednesday, DAA's chief executive, Dalton Phillips, conceded that the company had cut its security staff "too deeply" during the pandemic, at a time when it was losing €1m (£852,000) a day at one stage.

'Competitive labour market'

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Thursday, the DAA's Kevin Cullinane said recruitment of staff was also being impacted by a "very competitive labour market".

"Airports that were ghost towns are trying to ramp up rapidly and trying to recruit extra staff," he said.

"The hospitality, tourism and travel sectors are all trying to get staff back."

Training for security staff can take up to six weeks to complete but this is now being accelerated for new members of staff.

Mr Cullinane said the airport was doing "everything in its power that the scenes of last weekend aren't repeated".

He added: "We will be doing our level best to ensure every passenger makes their flight this holiday weekend and indeed over the busy summer months ahead."

Post-pandemic recovery

Dublin Airport has not been the only airport were passengers have faced long queues and disruption.

Staff shortages have hit UK airports too, with airlines also cancelling a raft of flights leaving passengers stranded.

• Why are so many flights being cancelled?

This has led to accusations from the UK transport secretary that airlines and operators have "seriously oversold flights and holidays" relative to their capacity to deliver.

Travellers are booking holidays at shorter notice since the pandemic

Consumer habits

Paul Hackett, who is president of Irish Travel Agents Association, has suggested a change in consumer habits since the coronavirus pandemic is causing issues.

"We are all experiencing a late market which means a high proportion of bookings are coming four to six weeks before travel," he said.

"Rather than the normal booking pattern that we would have for our industry, where airlines and airports could see that X-amount of passengers have been booked since last year."

With the rising cost of living, Mr Hackett said consumers were more "nervous about the money in their pocket", meaning bookings were being made at shorter notice.

Seeing reports of queues and disruption at airports have not discouraged people to travel this summer, according to Mr Hackett, but he warns it will if things continue.

"It's impacting customers looking forward to a holiday, but we're not seeing cancellations," he said.

"If this goes on, of course it will impact behaviour but this is a time when consumers have not travelled for three years."