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Poll reveals one in 10 Dublin Airport passengers to change travel plans due to queue chaos

More than 1,000 passengers missed their flights on one day last month due to long security queues.

MORE THAN ONE in 10 passengers with a flight departing from Dublin Airport this summer either have already or intend to change their travel plans due to the chaotic scenes witnessed at Dublin Airport recently, according to a new poll. 

At the end of last month, more than 1,000 passengers in one day alone missed their flights due to long queues at airport security. Although measures have been put in place to avoid a repeat of this situation, for some prospective passengers the damage has already been done.

In a poll carried out by Red C for The Journal, 42% of people said they had or have flights booked to depart from Dublin Airport this summer. Of those, 12% have already or intend to change or cancel their flights as a result of the long queues at the airport.

The highest proportion of those who have changed or intend to change plans were men and women aged 18-34.

Almost half of those polled said they have no plans to take a flight this summer, while 10% said they booked flights departing from another airport.

The government stepped in last month to force the airport operators DAA to develop a plan to manage the increased footfall over the summer.

The plan included improvements to the queue management system, a maximisation of staffing resources and an increase in the number of security lanes open at peak times. 

Though the airport has continued to be busy – including early yesterday morning when passengers had to queue to enter Terminal 1 – DAA has said the kinds of delays experienced by passengers at the end of last month have not been repeated. 

Dublin Airport has also come under criticism in recent weeks over the cost of its longterm car parking. One customer noted a €70 increase for a ten-day period in the longterm car park, compared to the same amount of time just a couple of months earlier.

 Another person paid €53 for nine days of parking in September 2021 and when booking recently for a trip this month they were charged €74.50 for just four days.

The airport operators have said they use a ‘dynamic pricing model’ which means prices for car parking depends on factors such as the time of year and demand at that time for parking. 

DAA has said it expects pressure on car parking availability will continue over the summer months. 

Senators this week signalled their intention to seek a debate with the Transport Minister on plans to improve the country’s aviation policy. 

Speaking in the Seanad, Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway said he had recently visited Shannon Airport and found it to be “very impressive”. 

“The new security features, including new scanners, that have been installed during the Covid pandemic have made a great difference,” he said.

Despite this, 87% of the aviation traffic in and out of this country goes through Dublin Airport. The Minister has acknowledged that we need a new aviation policy. I propose that we have a debate with the Minister in the Seanad on such a policy because I believe there is a lot of expertise in the area of transport and aviation in this chamber and that such a debate would be useful.

Fianna Fáil Senator Lisa Chambers said Conway had made a valid point about the need to rebalance the air traffic across regions. 

“The Senator made the valid point that we have other airports in the State such as Cork, Shannon, and Ireland West Airport Knock, that can certainly have more capacity to assist in getting passengers in and out of the country,” she said.

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    Mute Crocodylus Pontifex
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:31 PM

    Come on students of UCD, don’t tell us you have forgotten what a full scale student protest is

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:37 PM

    @Crocodylus Pontifex: normally you can’t prevent them marching- not one to the Chinese embassy in last two years Spend some time with us at Orwell Road too

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:36 PM

    Good man Ben- proud of you.

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    Mute Bopper Bops Holland
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:55 PM

    @Jonathan O’Riordan: he resigned from one position

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    Mute Bopper Bops Holland
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    Mar 1st 2022, 3:57 PM

    @Bopper Bops Holland: and a part time one at that

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:23 PM

    @Bopper Bops Holland: so he is still making a point, more than most

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    Mute Alan Leahy
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:04 PM

    Does his resignation come with a pay cut or is it the same pay package, now with less responsibility?

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    Mute Tony Harris
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:36 PM

    @Alan Leahy: Might it be a mealy mouthed resignation?

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    Mute diarmuid
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:45 PM

    You might mention that he’s a director of the Irish Defence and Security Association, a lobby group for the arms industry in Ireland.

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    Mute Jonathan O'Riordan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 8:30 PM

    @diarmuid: don’t see the relevance, but glad to hear that Ireland is making €38m off software and technology as an industry. If not us then it would be someone else

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    Mute Fergus Quinlan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 5:56 PM

    The western media have won the day….war has come in one door as truth and reason fled out the other..NATO…who have worked hard for this moment …wine and dine with the arms salesmen…

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    Mute Jim Monaghan
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:55 PM

    Russia treats Ukraine in the same way the USA treats Cuba. It is the equivalent of Ireland to Russia. The invasion has to be opposed. Putin’s war of aggression has damaged us all. Aside for economic consequences, it could lead to a world war.

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    Mute Roger Bond
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    Mar 1st 2022, 6:35 PM

    @Jim Monaghan: Do you remember the Cuba crisis where America threatened Nuclear war if Russia didn’t get out of Cuba.
    Russia now doesn’t want NATO, US with bases in Ukraine.

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    Mute Disco Inferno
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    Mar 1st 2022, 6:39 PM

    @Roger Bond: that’s because the USSR had placed and threatened to place, nuclear arms facilities on thr Island of cuba, so its not the same, not by a long shot

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    Mute Ivan Connolly
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    Mar 1st 2022, 8:45 PM

    @Disco Inferno: the USSR was placing nuclear weapons in Cuba because the US had placed them in Turkey. So it was tit for tat only the US weren’t going to have any tat and instead threatened all out war. Russia’s anxiety regarding Ukraines potential membership of NATO is that the US will place missile systems, which they have already placed in other NATO countries, which are capable of neutralising Russia’s nuclear deterrent and therefore unbalancing the MAD status quo. Their reasoning is sound but their actions are appalling. But the world has a history of powerful countries acting appallingly simply because they can. There are other countries with whom we are closely aligned who have acted in the exact same manner but do not receive our condemnation. The wests hypocrisy is also appalling

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    Mute Colm O'Leary
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    Mar 2nd 2022, 6:44 AM

    @Roger Bond: do you? Remember the Cuban missile crisis or is it something you’ve just read about in your schoolbooks so you “know” about it! History is different if you’ve lived through it to what shows up in books 40 or 50 years later when the hindsight is 20/20 and everyone has died….

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    Mute Gerard Collins
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    Mar 1st 2022, 4:59 PM

    Delores Cahill!?

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