Several airlines including Ryanair and Aer Lingus are being threatened with potential fines of up to €127,000 for allegedly failing to adequately staff check-in desks at Dublin Airport.
In the past week, Aer Rianta has issued more than 100 notices to airlines at the airport, claiming breaches of a recently-introduced by-law on check-in desk requirements.
The airport operator said it had informed the airlines "that any further breaches will leave the company with no option but to pursue legal redress".
Under the by-law, which was enacted last February, Aer Rianta can petition a District Court judge to fine airlines up to €127,000 for each offence.
In a statement yesterday, the company said passengers were being subjected to unnecessary delays at the airport, resulting from the failure of a number of airlines to open their check-in desks sufficiently in advance of flight departure times, as well as their failure to open a sufficient number of such desks to cater for passenger numbers. Aer Rianta declined to name the offending airlines although it is understood most of the notices have been issued to Ryanair, with Aer Lingus accounting for a smaller number of complaints.
Both airlines reject the criticism. A spokeswoman for Ryanair said Aer Rianta "should get their own house in order" rather than engage in what she described as a "diversionary tactic".
"Everybody knows that the largest queues at Dublin Airport are at the security desk, which is owned and operated by Aer Rianta," she said.
An Aer Lingus spokesman said it believed it had "more than adequate check-in capacity" to deal with customers.
Aer Rianta came in for heavy criticism earlier this month when a survey showed Dublin Airport was the worst in Europe for flight delays, with more than one in four planes taking off at least 15 minutes late.The company sought to avoid any link between the survey and its criticism of the airlines, saying it had been "endeavouring to resolve the matter [of check-in operations] for a number of months now", adding the introduction of the by-law had been a response to that problem.
Under the by-law, a minimum of three check-in desks should be operational for flights carrying more than 201 passengers, a minimum of two for those carrying 51-200, and at least one for those carrying 1-50. All required desks should be open no later than two hours before the scheduled flight departure time.
Mr Tadhg Kearney, chairman of the Air Transport Users Council, said it welcomed the initiative so long as it was "an effort to improve passenger services.
"But we would not like it to be a cosmetic, dressing up exercise, distracting from other problems at the airport."
He said there seemed to be "a fairly convincing case" that a lot of delays stemmed from teething problems with the transfer of UK air traffic control operations from Heathrow to the south of England. As a high proportion of Irish air traffic went over London, "we are particularly vulnerable", he said.
