Airlines face legal action over Dublin delays

Aer Rianta today threatened legal action against airlines over flight delays in Dublin.

The company said that in the past week more than 100 formal notifications had been issued to airlines in connection with their failure to observe a new bye-law, introduced in a bid to reduce hold-ups.

The move followed the publication of a report last week naming Dublin as the worst airport in Europe for flight delays.

Aer Rianta claimed passengers were being “subjected to unnecessary delays and inconvenience daily” by some airlines at Dublin airport, and said that as a result of lengthy queues, they had brought in the new regulations to ensure that airline check-in facilities were adequately staffed.

Delays were currently being experienced by large numbers of passengers because of the failure of a number of airlines to open their check-in desks sufficiently in advance of flight departure times and to operate an adequate number of desks to cater for the number of passengers.

Airlines at Dublin Airport operate and staff the check-in desks under licence from Ireland’s Commission for Aviation Regulation.

But, according to Aer Rianta: “Failure to have a sufficient number of check-in desks open and sufficiently in advance of departure times is causing unnecessary and unacceptable congestion in the Terminal Building at Dublin Airport.”

In order to prevent further delays the bye-law had been enacted.

Under its terms, all check-in desks are required to open no later than two hours before scheduled departure time of flights, for flights carrying between one and 50 people, a minimum of one check-in desk has to be operational; for those with between 51 and 200 people, a minimum of two check-in desks have to be operational, and for more than 200, there has to be a minimum of three desks.

Aer Rianta said they had been attempting to resolve the matter for a number of months now to ensure that check-in operated as smoothly as possible for passengers.

But it added: “Problems persist with check-in, and passenger complaints have increased substantially.

“Aer Rianta has issued formal notifications to a number of airlines who are in breach of the bye-law.

“In the last seven days over 100 such notices have been issued to a number of airlines, who have been informed that any further breaches will leave the company with no option but to pursue legal redress for breach of a bye-law, which is provided for under the Air Navigation and Transport Act.”