SIGNIFICANT DELAYS AT Dublin Airport yesterday saw passengers waiting up to an hour-and-a-half to get through security after a “particularly busy” weekend, a spokesperson for the airport has said. 

118 passengers missed their flights after queues began to form before 8am and lasted until 11am, according to the daa interim group head of communications Kevin Cullinane.

“We want to apologise profusely to those passengers that were affected, and particularly those who unfortunately missed their flights yesterday morning,” Cullinane told The Journal.  

He said this weekend was “particularly busy”, with passenger numbers “increasing at an exponential rate since July 19″ when EU travel restrictions were loosened.

He said the airport is aware of the numbers due to fly at any given time but they “don’t necessarily know how early or late” people will arrive to the airport before their flights. 

The airport was “found wanting yesterday” and didn’t have sufficient security lanes opened and manned.

“It was the first wave of departures yesterday morning, so as a result passengers experienced at worst a queue of an hour-and-a-half to get through security.” 

He said the delays were “probably more exasperated” in Terminal 1, but Terminal 2 was also impacted.

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 are “adding to the time it takes a passenger to travel through the airport from check-in to security” and Cullinane advised passengers to allow additional time when planning their arrival to the airport. 

“It was entirely our fault, but we are encouraging passengers to allow more time. There are more people flying again, the airports are getting busier and there is an additional layer of bureaucracy,” he said. 

He said the general advice before the pandemic was to arrive two hours before a European flight and three hours before a long-haul flight, with an extra 30 minutes added on for those parking a car.

During Covid-19, he said it’s “no harm” to arrive an additional 30 minutes early to account for pandemic-related checks, saying some people may be “misinformed” that airports are still quiet. 

He said security queue times reduced to under 10 minutes after 11am yesterday. 

“We have obviously learned from the experience and for today we’ve provided additional security personnel redeployed from other parts of the airport,” Cullinane said.  

Travel trends

Founder of Irish travel agency Best4Travel, Jeff Collins, said his company’s business has doubled in August compared to July. His shops reopened on 1 July.  

“Of that business, as of today, 72% has been for bookings in 2021 between now and Christmas,” Collins told The Journal. 

He said bookings show 28% of the trips are for 2022 with a lot of families booking cruises and trips to countries like Portugal, Spain and Greece. 

He said a lot of the bookings between now and Christmas are families and couples planning trips for the October bank holiday weekend to the Canary Islands, along with trips away for Christmas. 

Best4Travel is a member of the Irish Travel Agents Association. 

Passenger increase

Kevin Cullinane said around 50,000 passengers flew in and out of Dublin Airport yesterday with numbers “ramping up week on week”. Preliminary figures show 21,851 people departed the airport yesterday compared to 22,776 people the Sunday prior. 

Despite this slight decrease in figures, Cullinane said the airport is seeing “almost a doubling week on week” in airport activity, but this is “still only at a fraction of what we would have had” before the pandemic. 

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that overseas travel to and from Ireland increased dramatically in July but remained heavily depressed compared to pre-pandemic levels.

A total of 380,700 passengers arrived in Ireland by air and sea in July after the roll-out of the EU Digital Covid Cert, a 138% increase from the previous month.

428,600 passengers departed from Ireland last month, a 115% increase from June.