The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has defended its service to passengers in advance of the airport's busiest weekend of the year.
More than 370,000 passengers are expected to travel through Dublin airport over the bank holiday weekend, a 14 per cent increase on the same period last year. Between today and Mon- day, over 2,270 flights will arrive and depart, including some 300 charter flights. Sunday will be the busiest day of the year, with over 95,000 people expected to travel.
Some 55,000 passengers are expected to pass through Shannon airport over the weekend - 17 per cent more than the same period last year - while authorities at Cork airport estimate that 62,500 - up some 15 per cent on last year - will pass through its doors by Monday.
In response to persistent reports of delays at Dublin airport's immigration desks for arriving passengers, the DAA yesterday opened a separate common travel area channel for Irish and UK citizens to alleviate pressure. This follows complaints from passengers at having to queue for over 45 minutes in order to file past the immigration desks, some of which were unmanned at peak times.
The DAA maintained that the immigration area is managed by the Garda Síochána and does not come under its authority. "We were given a commitment by the Garda that those four booths would be manned, [ but] they have conceded themselves that they have had manning issues," said the DAA's Siobhán Moore.
There have been complaints, too, of overcrowding on the departures floor, long queues at check-in desks, delays in baggage retrieval and long walks to departure gates. Some of these issues - baggage handling and passenger check-in, for example - are the responsibility of airlines, while others, according to the DAA, are symptoms of a wider difficulty: an airport that is too small to cope with rapid increases in passenger numbers.
Last year, it pointed out, some 18.4 million people travelled through Dublin airport, a figure that is expected to increase by at least another two million this year. For the first time in the airport's history, in June this year, passenger numbers exceeded two million in one month.
"That's just phenomenal growth. There's no other airport experiencing that kind of growth. For the first time in the airport's history, we broke the two million passenger barrier in one month in June this year. That happened in June, it happened in July, it's going to happen in August and it's looking like it's going to happen in September as well. So when you think about it, that's twice the population of Ireland going through the airport in four months," Ms Moore said.
There were few delays yesterday morning, with check-in queues moderate and passengers having to wait no more than five minutes to pass security checks.
Fionnuala Kelly, from Moy, Co Tyrone, who was travelling to Dubai with her husband Raymond and son Jack, said her most common grievance was the delay in retrieving baggage.
Among the longer-term measures being introduced to ease congestion at the airport are a new, 26-desk check-in area which is being built in the basement and is due to open in December. A planning application for the airport's second terminal is likely to be lodged at the end of this month.