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RIGHT OR WRONG, it’s often stated a country’s main airport is a microcosm of its economy as a whole.
In David McWilliams’ The Generation Game in 2007, the Irish celebrity economist began the book by describing how the Dublin Airport of the time was bursting at the seams in the Celtic Tiger economy.
Back then, construction on Dublin Airport’s T2 had not yet begun and the shiny new section of T1 across the long sky-bridge had not been finished either.
Now, that section is almost exclusively home to Ryanair, but in 2007 Ryanair’s expanding passenger-base was forced into a literal temporary prefab that was called Pier D.
The image of a temporary prefab playing home to the fastest-growing airline in the world is about as perfect an analogy for the 2007 Irish economy as one could muster.
Fast forward to 2022 and once again the airport is indicative of what’s going on across business and society.
The chaos that ensued last week when passengers were forced to queue for hours and 1,400 people missed flights was a direct result of post-Covid demand returning faster than businesses had catered for.
There are many valid questions about whether DAA could have catered for the demand through smarter planning or fewer redundancies, but the reality is it did not. Indeed, the company has admitted that itself, with CEO Dalton Philips saying the company was “wildly wrong” in estimating the number of passengers Dublin Airport would be dealing with this summer.
How wrong were they? Well, Philips said industry experts had predicted that 2022 passenger numbers would remain at an average of 70% of what they were in 2019. On foot of those predictions, the DAA planned for 75% but what we’re now seeing is passenger numbers at 95% of what they were before Covid.
“To put this in context, on average during May, the airport has handled almost 16,500 extra passengers every single day which no one in the industry had predicted six months ago,” Philips told angry TDs on Wednesday.
DAA aren’t the only ones struggling with demand, however, with the hospitality sector being particularly vocal about its difficulties in getting the show back on the road post-Covid.
And we enter the first full summer festival season in three years there are bound to be questions over whether organisers are, well, as organised as they could be given the staff shortage.
There are tens of thousands of vacancies in bars, hotels and restaurants across the country and employers have said it is becoming increasingly difficult to recruit new staff.
Last week, Adrian Cummins, CEO of the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI) controversially questioned why there were 150,000 people unemployed in Ireland during a staffing crisis.
Many have suggested this could be addressed within the industry itself with better pay and conditions hospitality workers themselves telling The Journal that the pandemic has allowed them the space for a much-needed assessment of their priorities.
What’s clear from all this is that the economy is still trying to find its equilibrium.
Covid was a once-in-a-century shock to how everyone works and lives and even if it may seem like everything’s back to normal again that is clearly not the case. Not yet at least.
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Another reminder that the children’s hospital is being built in the wrong location. Every time there is an accident on the M50 roads into Dublin cannot manage the level of traffic.
Inside the M50 belt just does not make sense.
@Ciarán McPhillips: such a scary thought for a child to be in an ambulance and caught up on the M50. Disgraceful decision.
@Deborah Behan: We’re sleepwalking our way towards that exact situation. The mind boggles.
No doubt caused by some muppet hammering up the outside/city lanes and then nipping in to go northbound. We need to start a campaign to not let queue jumpers in.
@mcgoo:
Or perhaps allowing queue jumpers in would stop the accidents
Meanwhile here in Leitrim….
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: who cares about a dying county like Leitrim
@Michael Walsh: We are not dying. We’re generally quite happy that we don’t have to become a slave to make a living. Who cares about the septic tank that is Dublin? See…same question.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: As a Dub myself id agree. Dublin is grinding to a standstill as we repeat the mistakes of the Celtic tiger years and continue to vote for political organisations who have their and not the nation as a whole best interests at heart.
@Patrick J. O’Rourke: jealous
@quality cheese: Did you post this on your 6 hour journey to work or from bed this morning? Hard to tell…. but “quality cheese”…… your at home
@Michael Walsh: like it or not your taxes keep Leitrim going.
@quality cheese: A tendency to resort to insults shows quite clearly a lack of intellect.
Tailgating is the problem. Its amazing cars doing 140kph tailgating just 1 metre behind the car in front. Amazing breaking system they must have to avoid a crash if the car in front suddenly breaks. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. 1m for every 2kph. Eg a car must leave 200 metres distance at 100 kph.
@Brendan Mason: That and the roads were wet this morning, come this way every morning before 7am.
Speed limit drops from 100 kp to 80 kp, most people dont pay any heed to that.
Many go beyond it.
Zero police enforcement and bad driving skills, welcome to Irish driving!
@Brendan Mason: 1m for every 2kph? Therfore using your formula travelling around 100kph should have a gap of 50m not 200m. Anyway if anyone left a gap of 200m on an Irish motorway they’d be flashed at (lights) and abused by other road users.
@Brendan Mason: The accident happened close to the Luas car park junction before the M50. Given the time of morning the accident occurred, and it being a Monday which is probably the busiest morning of the week anyway, it’s virtually an impossibility that cars were traveling at 140kph, or anywhere remotely close to that speed.
@Tommy Roche: the 140 kph is an example. 4okph may be enough to cause a crash if cars are close enough to each other .
@Brendan Mason: 40 kph sorry.
@Brendan Mason: I drive as part of my job and find that if you do leave a gap to the car in front then you’ll always have a gimp who will try to squeeze their car into that gap meaning you have to jam on the breaks
@Brendan Mason: 1mtr behind a car in front driving at 140kmh? Bit of an exaggeration don’t you think. Most drivers wouldn’t be able to judge 60, 80,100mtrs. Little tip – if you are overtaking in the out most lane try keep right of centre of your lane. You will be able to see the break lights of the second car in front.
@Brendan Mason: if you keep the right distance some mope jumps in in front of you that cuts your distance your bolloxed then . This happens very often rant over
For a lot of tech companies e.g. Facebook, Dell, Amazon, people can work from home quite a bit. With some planning you dont need mega-speed broadband either. Can’t help but think some of these businesses could make the leap to commuter towns and beyond. Clonakility has a multinational, the workers have houses, sea-air, little traffic and are 30 mins from Cork for a bit of life, and the airport also. Not ignoring the lack of routes currently available, but if more large towns within 60 mins of Galway, Limerick and Cork were utilised, how much better would life be for people? It will only take one big tech company to lead the way.
Vomit. How do people put up with this shit everyday of their lives.
Life is short people.
@Ciarán McPhillips: I ment 50 metres for 100 kph.
70 metres for 140 kph etc.
@Brendan Mason: but they are not leaving a fraction of that distance. Gung ho. Flash lights. The road is mine attitude. Slap on the breaks etc.
@Brendan Mason:
Spot on. Clueless behaviour.
H
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