Successful bank holiday weekend for Dublin Airport but baggage issues continue

Graeme McQueen said anyone flying out from Dublin Airport over the coming months should be confident that they will see a much-improved performance from the airport.

Dublin Airport bosses say the bank holiday weekend was hugely successful in terms of passenger movement.

Over 400,000 passengers passed through the airport between Friday and Monday.

Following several months of travel chaos at the airport which saw passengers queuing for hours and many missing their flights, there was apprehension about whether it would cope with the demand of the August bank holiday.

Graeme McQueen, a spokesperson for the airport's operator Daa, said the check-in times have been dramatically reduced.

"On Monday, we had over 50,000 passengers flying out and nobody took longer than 25 minutes to get through security," he said.

"A really good performance and it has been a really good month for all of July.

"We are happy with the progress that we are making and we are confident that that is going to continue on into August."

Mr McQueen said the hiring of more staff in the coming weeks will reduce delays even further.

Staffing levels are "in and around" where they were in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic effectively shut down the aviation sector.

An additional 50 additional staff are set to be recruited during August.

"That is going to put us in a good place for the rest of the summer and on into the rest of the year."

Mr McQueen said anyone flying out from Dublin Airport over the coming months should be confident that they will see a much-improved performance from the airport.

Airport disruption around Europe posing challenges for baggage delivery 

Those whose luggage is transferred from one airline to another are impacted the most by these issues. Picture: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin

Although travel through Dublin Airport ran smoothly over the long weekend, Aer Lingus has warned it is being impacted by widespread disruption and resource challenges.

The challenges relate to many airports most notably London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Paris.

Travellers may still experience delays when it comes to baggage. Those whose luggage is transferred from one airline to another are impacted the most by these issues.

This group represent the bulk of bags being delayed or misdirected, according to a spokesperson for Aer Lingus.

The airline said the issues are beyond their control but they are working to improve the situation for customers.

The Aer Lingus team on the ground is working closely with relevant third-party handling agents to retrieve delayed and misdirected bags quickly and efficiently.

Staff have been redeployed from other areas of the organisation to support the ground operations team and this additional support will remain in place for the duration of the summer travel period.

A standalone portal has been created where customers can log their missing bags from anywhere across the Aer Lingus network and can easily check for updates - the portal can be found here.

Where baggage has been missing for more than 21 days, customers are advised to contact their insurance provider and if the customer does not have personal travel insurance they can submit a claim to Aer Lingus' customer relations department.

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"Aer Lingus anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built buffers into our plans to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption," a statement to the Irish Examiner said.

"However, significant chaos in the global aviation system is severely impacting on the service provided to customers."

Swissport, one of a number of baggage handlers at Dublin Airport, said they are not experiencing any issues in relation to meeting the demand of summer travellers.

Around 80% of baggage is self-handled by airlines and the remainder is handled between Swissport and Sky Handling Partners.

"Swissport understand baggage delays are really frustrating for passengers and they’re working closely with airline and airport partners to process luggage as fast as possible," said a spokesperson for the company.

Meanwhile, in England, British Airways has reportedly suspended selling short-haul flights from Heathrow for at least a week.

Last month, Heathrow announced a cap on passenger numbers with no more than 100,000 daily departing passengers permitted until September 11.

Many passengers flying to and from the UK’s busiest airport have suffered severe disruption in recent months, with long security queues and baggage system breakdowns.