Dublin Airport apologises after ‘perfect storm’ causes 118 passengers to miss flights

Dublin Airport has said it has learned its lesson after 118 passengers missed their flights on Sunday morning because of delays going through airport security.

Passengers were forced to queue for up to two hours to get through security and many complained that most of the desks were unmanned despite the number of people flying.

Daa spokesman Kevin Cullinane said on Monday they knew in advance the number of passengers that were going to turn up on Sunday morning, but they did not expect so many of them to arrive at once.

The number of passengers who departed the airport on Sunday was actually down 4 per cent on the previous Sunday.

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“We put our hands up and apologise. We clearly didn’t have the number of security lines for the number of passengers who presented themselves in the first wave on Sunday morning,” he said.

“We, Dublin Airport/Daa, were at fault and we unreservedly apologise to the passengers that were held in queues for that length of time and those who missed their flights.

“It is not the way we want to run our business. Yesterday was not a good day for us at the airport. We had a perfect storm of people presenting themselves in some instances four or five hours before the flight or others who left it too late.

“We have taken the lessons on board. We had additional security personnel deployed today and we had additional security lines open.”

Mr Cullinane said most of the passengers who missed flights were rebooked on other flights. “We will be talking to the airlines to see if anything is outstanding. That remains to be seen at this moment in time.

“We are getting busier week on week. There are are more people flying and there are more regulations. People need to leave more time.”

Travel advice

Daa (formerly the Dublin Airport Authority), which operates Dublin Airport, has advised passengers to turn up at least two hours early for a European flight and three hours in advance for a long-haul flight.

Daa stressed that since the return to international travel on July 19th, there are new regulations and procedures which mean passengers have to turn up earlier.

A member of security staff, who contacted The Irish Times but declined to give their name, said the fault for the delays rests with management and not with security staff.

“We are doing our very best to get passengers through as efficiently as possible while being 100 per cent compliant,” she said.

“Do you not think the last year and a half has been hard on us when nobody has passed through the terminal for so long? We still had to turn up for our shifts as early as 3.10am to stand around for eight/nine hours a day and do nothing!

“We’ve had our wages cut, and messed around by upper management with regards to rosters with no consideration for family life. And all of a sudden we are hit with such an influx of passengers that we cannot keep up because of the decisions made by the company?”

In response Mr Cullinane said Dublin Airport is down 1,000 staff as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, when air traffic fell by 95 per cent over the last 18 months.

“We certainly don’t want a reoccurrence of what people experienced on Sunday morning,” he said.