Passengers face more queues in early hours of the morning at Dublin Airport 

Passengers flying from Dublin Airport in recent weeks have been greeted with long delays going through security. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

More travel disruption greeted passengers at Dublin Airport on Friday morning as people faced more lengthy security queues.

Early morning travellers faced the security queues with the worst hit being in the early hours of Friday.

The worst of the queues were seen between 2.30am and 4.30am. Dublin Airport at its peak, it took some passengers 70 minutes to pass through security.

"This was partly due to a large number of passengers arriving significantly earlier than forecast, ahead of flights that were departing much later in the morning," said Graeme McQueen, Media Relations Manager at DAA (Dublin Airport Authority).

"Queue times reduced quickly and considerably once additional security lanes were opened, as planned, to align with passengers arriving around three and a half hours before their departure times."

Mr McQueen added: "DAA thanks passengers for heeding its advice to arrive up to three and a half hours before their departure time. In the days and weeks to come, adhering to this advice, rather than arriving at the airport much earlier, will help passengers get through security screening as quickly as possible."

One passenger took to social media shortly before 4am to say "nothing" was moving in Terminal 2 while another claimed it was a disaster.

Dublin Airport previously said it is still trying to rebound from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and blamed the delays at security on a shortage of fully-trained staff.

Nothing moving at Terminal 2 #DublinAirport pic.twitter.com/iUpCRru9tz

— Mark Quinn (@markquinn77) April 8, 2022

 

@DublinAirport worst Airport ever! What a disaster! pic.twitter.com/AeONsAcWiO

— V77🇪🇸 (@77Vlade) April 8, 2022

Earlier this week, it was announced that some Cork Airport security staff are to be temporarily reassigned to Dublin Airport to help deal with the queues.

That is one of the measures announced by the DAA in a bid to ease any future delays, especially as the busy Easter travel period approaches.

In a letter to the joint Oireachtas committee on transport and communications last Wednesday, the DAA said recruitment for more security staff is already underway.

It said that the temporary reassigning of Cork staff will not compromise passenger services at Cork Airport. 

The recruitment of 100 new security staff is among the measures being taken by the DAA, with 250 candidates have been invited for interview next week.

The Dublin Airport operator has also contracted third-party security trainers to expand the training capacity for new security checking recruits.

Dalton Philips, DAA's chief executive, said in the letter that the challenges faced by Dublin Airport "are endemic across major airports in the EU and the UK at this time".

Covid-related staff absences are also having an impact at the airport. 

The committee said that it welcomed the update from the DAA, but still had "serious questions in relation to the recruitment process".

We question whether the specific employment contract terms on offer are proving to be a major constraint on the recruitment of security checking staff, where we see only a possible of 20 hours per week on offer, together with the rate of pay on offer, and are requesting the DAA to revisit the employment terms here," said a statement.

"Furthermore, the committee is advocating that before garda vetting is requested, an employment contract offer must first be made, rather than after the vetting process has been concluded, as is the current position."

The committee said that delays must be avoided "as we enter the busy season for flights".

Mr Dalton said that since March 27, around 300,000 passengers have departed Dublin Airport, "none of whom missed a flight because of security queues".

Meanwhile, Simon Coveney has said he is “not very keen” on the idea of deploying troops to help to deal with the delays at security checks at the airport.

Defence Minister Simon Coveney.

The Defence Minister said that no formal request for members of the Defence Forces has been made. At the weekend, Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary called for 250 army personnel to be drafted in to help.

Asked if he thought Defence Forces personnel should be brought in to help, Mr Coveney said: “That’s an option I’m not very keen on, I have to say, as Minister for Defence.

Our Defence Forces are busy, they’re asked to do a lot outside of core defence.

“But there is no formal request, and has been no formal request, for the army to be part of the solution in Dublin Airport.

“I know that the DAA are working hard to ensure they can get more efficiency and faster throughput through the security checks in the airport, but as of now, there is no formal ask of me as Minister of Defence or of my department in terms of the assisting on that.” 

Junior transport minister Hildegarde Naughton said she is having daily meetings with the DAA in relation to the contingency measures.