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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Marita Moloney

Dublin Airport responds after more 'crazy' scenes as people arrive from 2.30am to queue for flights

Passengers travelling from Dublin Airport were hit by early-morning queues once again on Friday after weeks of "chaotic" delays.

Extensive lines of people have been seen snaking through the terminal buildings over the past month as a result of security tailbacks.

Some 300 people have already issued formal complaints to the Dublin Airport Authority, which manages the airport, over delays and missed flights.

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Travellers have been advised to arrive at the airport three and a half hours in advance in order to ensure they don't miss their flights.

The recommendation comes ahead of the busy Easter period when millions of people will transit through Ireland's biggest airport.

On Friday, people began arriving from 2.30am and huge queues quickly formed once again.

Images posted on social media show large crowds in the airport waiting to get to security, with some waiting 70 minutes to get through to departures.

Passengers reported "crazy" queues, with one describing the scenes as "carnage" and akin to "a cattle mart".

A spokesperson for the daa said the "significant queues" in both Terminals at Dublin Airport in the early hours of Friday morning were particularly bad between 2.30am and 4.30am.

Have you experienced delays at the airport? Share your story in the comments section

Graeme McQueen, Media Relations Manager at daa, said this was mainly the result of "a large number of passengers arriving earlier than expected ahead of flights later in the morning".

At its peak, it took some passengers up to 70 minutes to pass through security but "queue times reduced considerably once additional security lanes were opened up, as scheduled, in both terminals", he added.

Dublin Airport is warning people travelling over Easter to arrive at the airport "a minimum of three and a half hours prior to their departure time".

"As the number of passengers travelling through Dublin Airport continues to increase over the coming period, daa continues to refine and adapt its security screening operation with the aim of ensuring that we get all passengers through security in plenty of time to make their flight," Mr McQueen said.

"We thank passengers for continuing to work with us at this time, which is seeing passenger numbers grow and Dublin Airport, like all other airports across Europe and UK, continuing to build back following the collapse of international travel over the past two years due to Covid-19.

One passenger posted this image on Twitter at 3.15am from Dublin Airport. (@RoscommDan/Twitter)

"As always, Dublin Airport's customer service team will work closely with any passengers who are found to have missed a flight as a result of delays at security screening to determine whether they are due a refund."

Mr McQueen said the measures to mitigate the delays include "the recruitment, training, and security clearance of a significant number of additional security screening staff to help Dublin Airport cope with the significantly higher than expected passenger numbers set to fly over the coming weeks and months".

"The shortage of security screening staff is the key contributory factor to the current difficulties," he said.

"While there have been no constraints on recruitment – more than 100 new security staff have already been recruited to date this year - daa is re-doubling its efforts to recruit additional staff. This week daa invited around 250 candidates for an interview, with offers now being made to almost 100 of those candidates.

"daa is also exploring other options to increase security staff numbers, including identifying former security screeners still employed by daa but now in different roles in the company and reaching out to those currently on career breaks, to ascertain their interest in reverting to security duties in the short term.

"The company is temporarily re-assigning a number of Cork-based security staff to Dublin in a manner that will assist the operation at Dublin Airport, without compromising the product offering in Cork. daa is also offering overtime to screening staff to encourage them to take up additional hours to help alleviate the issue.

"Bringing some recruits into the operation has been delayed by the requirement for enhanced background checks for aviation workers which came into effect on January 1 this year. Thankfully, however, this log jam is now easing."

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