‘Appalling’ hours-long queues at Dublin airport spark travel chaos

Passengers at Dublin Airport are reporting delays caused by hours-long queues for check-in desks and security scanners, with long waits at the weekend continuing into Monday.

“Despite waiting for hours, we could not catch our plane. I condemn the Dublin airport officials who made us experience this disgrace,” wrote Ertan Sahin on Twitter last night.

“Dublin Airport take [a] bow for what can only be described as the bun fight of the century. Two and a half hours waiting to get through security and a missed flight. APPALLING,” tweeted Alan Cantwell.

“Footage from inside Dublin Airport showing long queues at around 6pm to get through security, meandering the length of the departures area,” wrote RTE News reporter Fergal O’Brien on Sunday.

“The DAA has apologised and advised passengers to expect delays over the coming days and weeks, as new security staff are hired.”

Dundee FC footballer Cillian Sheridan simply wrote: “Proud to say I survived the Dublin Airport queues of ‘22”.

Meanwhile, Ryanair tweeted a warning to customers shortly after 3pm today, saying: “Due to DAA staff shortages at Dublin Airport, passengers should arrive at least 3.5 hours before their scheduled departure time.

“We apologise to customers for these unfortunate security delays, which are entirely out of our control.”

However, at around midday, Dublin Airport was advising customers to arrive two hours before their flight for short haul journeys.

“If travelling on a short haul flight, our advice is to arrive at the airport no less than two hours prior to your boarding time. If going long haul, the advice is three hours prior,” reads its Twitter advice to passengers.

Customers also reported conflicting advice on wait times in the airport from Dublin Airport’s app.

“The Dublin airport app gives the current wait times for security at each terminal and they’re both around 25 mins currently but I see someone below has said they just got through and it took one hour 15, so I guess maybe the app isn’t totally reliable which is frustrating,” commented Nicole Casey.

This morning, customer Joanne Murphy shared a cheerier picture of the delays at Dublin, tweeting: “Flew through security Dublin Airport T1 this morning, small queue at fast track, however staff were going as fast as they could and were very friendly. Arrived too early for Ryanair check in which only opened three hours before flight - time now for coffee & breakfast.”

A spokesperson for DAA, which runs Dublin and Cork Airports, said the queues had eased this morning, and said staffing issues as air routes reopen from Dublin were behind the delays.

“Unfortunately, some passengers have experienced delays at Dublin Airport in recent days. We apologise to passengers impacted. Like other airports all over Europe, we are currently working extremely hard to ramp up our operation at Dublin Airport after the collapse of international travel over the past two years, including the hiring and training of staff.

“We apologise in advance but queues for security are likely to be experienced at peak hours over the days and weeks ahead as we continue to bring trained staff on board.

“Anyone travelling through Dublin Airport in the coming days and weeks should be prepared for things to take longer than they might expect. To minimise the impact, we encourage all passengers to check in bags where they can and to carry the minimum amount with them when presenting at security. We would also encourage all passengers to be at the airport a minimum of 2 hours before boarding a short-haul flight and 3 hours prior to boarding a long-haul flight.”

They also pointed to a new requirement for enhanced background checks for aviation workers that came into effect in Ireland in January.