AS THE Dublin Airport Authority prepares to open Terminal 2 tomorrow, Aer Lingus has encouraged all passengers to report to the original airport building until further notice.
Aer Lingus will begin operating some trial flights from Terminal 2 tomorrow, but it stressed that passengers must still check in at the existing Terminal 1 building.
If their flight has been selected as a trial or “proving” flight, then they will be escorted to the new building.
Passengers on flights which arrive into Terminal 2 will also be escorted to the Terminal l building for exit. People collecting passengers have also been asked to collect them as normal from the existing building.
An Aer Lingus spokeswoman said it would not yet be publishing a list of flights that would be using Terminal 2 as this would lead to confusion for passengers who might think they had to report to the new building.
The airline is preparing for a full transfer of its scheduled operations into the new terminal from January.
The transfer of transatlantic flights to Terminal 2 was delayed because the US customs and border protection authorities decided not to open their Terminal 2 facilities until January.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen will open Terminal 2 tomorrow. Etihad Airways will operate the first scheduled flights from the new building from next Tuesday, November 23rd.
When fully operational, Terminal 2 will be home to Aer Lingus’s entire operation at Dublin airport and will also handle flights operated by Etihad Airways and US carriers.
It has been built at a cost of €609 million and has capacity for up to 15 million passengers.
Fine Gael transport spokesman Simon Coveney yesterday criticised the delay in opening the new terminal and said the Dublin Airport Authority had wasted money on an expensive advertising campaign.
“This campaign is completely unnecessary and will be paid for by passengers,” he said.
“Passengers flying in or out of Dublin don’t need to see slick TV adverts on a new terminal.
“They are more concerned about travel costs, services and efficiency – airport charges, car park charges, queues and flights that arrive and depart on time,” Mr Coveney added.
