Bank holiday travellers face one-hour airport security wait

People travelling for the bank holiday could face one-hour security queues at Dublin Airport this weekend, Dalton Philips, the chief executive of airport owner DAA, has warned.

Almost 250,000 passengers are due to travel through the airport from Thursday to Monday, just days after lengthy delays there caused more than 1,000 people to miss their flights.

Mr Philips told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport he was confident of its plans for this weekend if passengers followed advice on when they should arrive for flights.

However, he could not guarantee the time that it would take travellers to get through security, where hold-ups triggered Sunday’s queues.

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“At peak times, it could be up to an hour,” he said, adding that one hour might not be the maximum should unforeseen problems arise.

[ Miriam Lord: International Man of Travel Dalton Philips comes back down to earth with a bump ]

Mr Philips stressed that anyone travelling short-haul this weekend should arrive at Dublin Airport 2½ hours before departure, while those on longer journeys should get there 3½ hours ahead of take-off.

Dublin Airport will have 40 extra security staff working over the long weekend, including 30 trainees and between three and six officers seconded from Cork. The airport had 37 fewer frontline staff than rostered for last Sunday, forcing it to close security lanes, which created the queues that caused passengers to miss flights.

Mr Philips told TDs and Senators that hiring staff qualified to operate X-ray machines used to screen baggage was a particular problem. However, he said that the DAA did not expect to need to implement a plan to use passenger “holding areas” outside its terminals over the bank holiday weekend.

“We don’t anticipate it, but we have to be prepared for it,” he said.

If terminals get particularly busy, Dublin Airport could limit entry based on passengers’ flight take-off times, so those who arrive too early could have to wait outside in designated “holding areas”.

In a statement, Mr Philips said the DAA would put bad-weather cover, seats and toilets in the holding areas over the next few days.

[ Inside Politics: Dublin Airport rumbles and Fianna Fáil grumbles ahead of long weekend ]

However, politicians criticised the plan. Labour TD Duncan Smith said it was “clear” that waiting outside terminals would be part of travelling out of Dublin Airport this summer.

“This is an incredible situation to be in for a modern international airport,” he declared.

Mr Philips could not rule out people having to wait in the rain if it fell. He also confirmed that there were not enough security staff to provide back-up should unexpected absences occur.

The chief executive pointed out that, in recent months, he and other management colleagues had been doing shifts on security lanes, where they carry out basic tasks that do not require training.

It also emerged that Mr Philips went through the airport’s “platinum service” security line when he flew to Saudi Arabia for business last Saturday night, before the delays arose.

[ Airport boss used private check-in to travel over weekend ]

Passengers who pay the €295 for the service get driven to their flight. Mr Philips stressed that he used this rarely and did not take it at the weekend to avoid delays, as he did not expect them.

He abandoned the trip, where he was scheduled to meet DAA International, which has four operations in the Middle East, once he was told of the problems in Dublin.

Mr Philips told committee members that traffic at Dublin Airport had been recovering far more quickly than expected since March. Passenger numbers are about 90 per cent of what they were before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“That’s not where we want to be,” he said.