Significant delays at Dublin Airport yesterday An airport spokesperson said passengers were waiting up to an hour and a half to bypass security after a « particularly busy » weekend.
118 passengers missed their flights after queues began forming before 8 a.m. and lasting until 11 a.m., according to DAA Temporary Communications Group President Kevin Cullinan.
« We want to apologize profusely to those passengers who were affected, especially those who unfortunately lost their flights yesterday morning, » Cullinan said. the magazine.
He said this weekend has been « particularly busy », with passenger numbers « increasing at an exponential rate since July 19 when travel restrictions in the European Union were eased. »
He said the airport is aware of what numbers are due to travel at any given time, but they « don’t necessarily know when people will arrive early or late » at the airport before their flights.
The airport « was found helpless yesterday » and not enough security corridors were opened and equipped.
« This was the first wave of departures yesterday morning, as a result of which passengers at worst faced an hour and a half queue to pass through security. »
He said the delays were « perhaps even more exasperated » in Terminal 1, but Terminal 2 was also affected.
He added that some airlines were able to accommodate those who missed their flights on later flights.
Additional checks on items such as Digital Covid Certs or Covid-19 test results « add to the time it takes a traveler to travel through the airport from check-in to security » and Cullilane advised passengers to allow extra time when planning their arrival at the airport.
“It was entirely our fault, but we encourage passengers to allow more time. There are more people traveling again, airports are getting busier and there is an extra layer of bureaucracy.
He said the general advice before the pandemic was to arrive two hours before a European trip and three hours before a long one, with an extra 30 minutes for those who park a car.
During Covid-19, he said there was « no harm » in arriving an extra 30 minutes earlier to account for pandemic-related checks, saying some people could be « misled » that airports are still quiet.
He said waiting times in security queues shrank to less than 10 minutes after 11 a.m. yesterday.
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« Obviously we’ve learned from experience, and today we have introduced additional security personnel who have been redeployed from other parts of the airport, » Cullinan said.
He said about 50,000 passengers flew to and from Dublin Airport yesterday with numbers increasing week by week. Preliminary figures show 21,851 people left the airport yesterday compared to 22,776 people the previous Sunday.
Despite that slight drop in numbers, Cullinan said the airport is seeing a « roughly doubling week per week » in airport activity, but that this is « still a fraction of what we would have had » before the pandemic.
new numbers From the Central Statistics Office showed that outbound travel to and from Ireland increased significantly in July but remained very low compared to pre-pandemic levels.
A total of 380,700 passengers arrived in Ireland by air and sea in July after the introduction of the EU Digital Covid Cert programme, an increase of 138% from the previous month.
428,600 travelers left Ireland last month, an increase of 115% from June.