'We let the nation down': Daa apologises as 1,000 passengers miss flights due to queues
Long queues for Departures at Terminal 2, Dublin Airport on Sunday morning. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin
Over 1,000 passengers missed flights on Sunday due to lengthy queues at Dublin Airport, according to the Dublin Airport management body (Daa).
The number could rise as the airport carries out a final tally in conjunction with airline partners with a spokesperson saying the number is already "well over" 1,000.
Issues that have plagued the airport over the past few months reached a climax over the weekend with some passengers queuing for over 11 hours for their flights.
Junior transport minister Hildegarde Naughton has brought forward her meeting with the Daa chief executive to first thing on Monday morning, to get clarity on the reasons behind Sunday's delays.
Staffing issues are largely to blame for the delays in getting travellers through the airport — an issue that was identified back in March.
Despite the airport running at a maximum of their available staff and aggressive recruitment over recent weeks, staff found themselves overwhelmed.
Kevin Cullinane, head of communications with the Daa, said it became clear early on Sunday that there were not enough staff to meet the demand.
"At the moment, any absenteeism impacts our ability to operate security lanes," he said.
"We have been augmenting our frontline security officers with a staffing taskforce of over 450 back office personnel.
"They were in again yesterday but clearly the challenges we faced very early on from about 4.30am just exasperated as people joined bag drop queues, checking queues and eventually the system was just overwhelmed by the sheer presentation of passengers."
Speaking to on RTÉ Radio 1, Mr Cullinane said that many passengers have started to arrive in the early hours of the morning in a bid to beat the queues and so the queue begins to build up from 3am.
Currently standing in a really long queue that is not security because the @AerLingus machines aren't working to check us in ❌ have verifly. Must wait. #DublinAirport
— Maryrose - find me at maryroselyons.bsky.social (@maryrose) May 30, 2022
The Daa has said that security officers will finish their training and be available to begin working in the coming days and weeks. By the end of June it is hoped there will be an additional 370 officers working in the airport.
There is concern among those hoping to get away for the June bank holiday weekend that they will face similar scenes seen over the weekend.
Mr Cullinane said that all available staff will be on duty over the long weekend, including the taskforce, and the Daa will be doing their best to ensure all passengers make their flights.
"We will be doing our level best to make sure that everyone makes their flight this weekend," he said.
Hundreds of images and videos of the queues which snaked through the departures area, around the outside of the terminals and into the car parks were widely shared across social media as passengers vented their frustration.
Affected passengers vented their fury describing the situation as "chaotic" "shambolic" and "disgraceful".
The Daa has said it will recompense those who were left out of pockets as a result of Sunday's airport chaos. They are advised to email customerexperience@dublinairport.com.
Approximately, 45,000 passengers are expected to depart from Dublin Airport today with current wait times of 45 minutes in Terminal One and 25 minutes in Terminal Two.
