Dublin Airport operators to escape fines over delays at security gates

 Long queues snake towards departures in Terminal 1 at Dublin Airport. The aviation regulator has decided that DAA should not be liable for penalties arising from 14 breaches of the maximum queue time at security gates in January.

The operators of Dublin Airport are to escape financial penalties potentially totalling over €4 million over a series of lengthy delays at security gates earlier this year as staff were off sick due to Covid-19.

The aviation regulator has decided that DAA should not be liable for penalties arising from 14 breaches of the maximum queue time at security gates in January.

The long queues exceeding the permissible waiting times occurred on seven separate days.

DAA is liable for penalties if passengers must queue for over 30 minutes to pass through security checks and if they have to wait for 20 minutes at least 70% of the time.

A further penalty applies if they have to queue for more than 45 minutes.

DAA can have the level of permitted airport charges reduced by up to €0.02 per passenger depending on the level of the breach.

Airport charges

Under a complex system of airport charges, it means DAA might have to forego up to €600,000 per breach if annual passenger traffic levels are 30 million.

A record 32.9m passengers travelled through Dublin Airport in 2019 but numbers fell to 7.4m in 2020 before increasing to just under 8.5m last year.

 Penalties for failing to meet quality of service charges were suspended for the past two years because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on normal operations at Dublin Airport.

As penalties apply on a daily basis, the Commission for Aviation Regulation said DAA had recorded seven breaches of its targets.

Covid-19 illness

However, the CAR said DAA had provided it with evidence of extenuating circumstances due to the impact of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.

DAA reported that the rate of sickness absences in January among its security team was 22% — with two-thirds of those staff out sick due to Covid-19.

The airport operators said the absentee rate was over four times higher than the sickness level normally planned for.

The regulator said it accepted that the reason for the lengthy queues at Dublin Airport met the criteria for a force majeure event.

The CAR said it would keep the situation under review for assessing any further breaches this year and if force majeure events had continued into February.