Dublin Airport faces cash penalties for queue chaos

Dublin Airport faces cash penalties for delays that caused more than 1,000 passengers to miss flights on Sunday.

The airport’s owner, State company DAA, said that the absence of 17 security staff rostered to work on Sunday caused long queues that led to travellers missing their flights.

Regulators confirmed that DAA could face “financial penalties” for the hold-ups, which lasted longer than the 30 minutes that Dublin Airport has agreed should be the maximum that travellers spend going through security.

DAA pledged to compensate the 1,000-plus people who missed their flights. Laws entitling air travellers to refunds or compensation for delayed or cancelled flights only apply to airlines, not airports.

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The Commission for Aviation Regulation (CAR), which sets Dublin Airport’s charges, said it would not be possible to calculate the likely penalties faced by DAA until early 2023, as they are tied to the total number of passengers that will pass through Dublin Airport this year.

Under a service agreement with DAA, the commission can “adjust” or claw back some of the money Dublin Airport earns from charges levied on airlines for security queue delays.

The penalty for waiting times lasting more than 45 minutes is 1 cent per passenger, but the commission can charge up to a maximum of 11 cent per head for overall lapses in security queue handling during the year.

“This applies to all passengers in the year and so the total amount depends on the actual passenger numbers in 2022,” the CAR said.

Dublin’s passenger total is not expected to match the record 32.9 million hit in 2019. However, DAA documents seeking bids from businesses interested in taking over an airport restaurant estimated they could hit 70 per cent of this, which is 23 million.

Applying the maximum 11 cent a head charge to this total would result in DAA paying a €2.53 million penalty. A 1 cent charge would cost the airport owner €230,000.

The CAR waived those penalties in January, February and March as Dublin Airport hired staff to meet demands from the upsurge in air travellers as the Government rowed back Covid-19 restrictions.

“From the start of the summer season, March 27th, the commission has indicated to DAA that it is less likely to waive penalties unless extraordinary circumstances exist,” said the regulator.

“We have yet to consider possible extenuating circumstances in relation to events since the start of the summer season.”

DAA spokesman Kevin Cullinane said the absence of 17 security workers on Sunday forced the airport to keep three to four security lanes closed as passengers began arriving in the early hours of the morning.

“We have not gotten to the bottom of those absences yet,” he said. The spokesman could not say what the full complement of staff should have been.

He explained that the initial delays spiralled as “more and more people joined the queues” through the day. About 50,000 people passed through Dublin Airport on Sunday.

DAA said it will have hired 370 extra security staff for Dublin Airport by the end of June. Mr Cullinane said the company has offered jobs to 300 of these.

He added that DAA was hiring more new security staff than the 260 who took voluntary severance during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company has streamlined training so recruits can begin work quickly.

Before last weekend, DAA maintains that Dublin Airport was getting 98 per cent of passengers through security in less than 45 minutes and 95 per cent in less than half an hour.

Dalton Philips, the company’s chief executive, is due before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport later this week.

Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan and his Minister of State colleague, Hildegarde Naughton, are seeking a report from DAA on how it intends to avoid similar chaos over the June bank holiday.