Dublin Airport ‘confident’ that passengers will not miss their flights this weekend

Dublin Airport officials have said they are “confident” that passengers will not miss flights this weekend if they arrive at the airport at the recommended time.

It comes after Dublin Airport made international headlines last weekend after long queues stretched outside the airport terminals and over 1,000 people missed their flights.

Dalton Philips, CEO of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), told the Oireachtas Transport Authority on Wednesday that these delays happened due to a rostering error.

Mr Philips also conceded that the aviation sector had recovered quicker than had been anticipated, and that 248 security staff should not have been offered voluntary redundancy last year, during travel restrictions introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking on RTE Radio today, media relations manager with the DAA Graeme McQueen said that if people adhere to the recommended arrival times “we’re confident that we can get you through in plenty of time this weekend”.

Passengers are advised to arrive at least 2.5 hours before short-haul flight departures, and 3.5 hours before long-haul flights depart. An extra hour is needed if they are checking in a bag.

“What we’re trying to do here is get the flow of passengers back to the way we want it so that we can get people through in a nice orderly manner,” Mr McQueen said.

He said that it is currently taking under an hour for passengers to get through the terminal, with around 46,000 passengers expected to fly out on Thursday.

Mr McQueen said that holding zones for passengers that arrive before the recommended times would only “kick in if they absolutely have to” in order to ensure people did not miss flights.

“If we need, at really busy times, to segment people into holding zones, we will do that. We will either check your boarding card or your booking confirmation.

“We’re very very confident in the operation that we’ve got in place for this weekend that we’re going to get everyone through and that there will be no missed flights.”