General News / May 30, 2022

What the hell is going on with Dublin airport?

General News / May 30, 2022

What the hell is going on with Dublin airport?

Words: Eva O’Beirne

With around 1,000 people missing their flights yesterday alone, you can’t help but wonder what is causing the massive delays.

Dublin Airport currently can’t guarantee its main function of allowing people to fly out of the country. But why is this?

Not even the daa seem sure, with bosses publicly admitting to the Irish Independent that they don’t know how things got this bad.

Passengers experienced “significant” queues for check-in, bag drop and security screening over the weekend with a number of people missing scheduled flights as a result.

@districtireland This country is so bad you can’t even get out #ireland #dublin #irish #culture #irishcomedy #airport ♬ Godforsaken place – Skelly

According to the head of communications of the data, they are “aggressively recruiting” at the moment, which has resulted, so far, in 300 additional staff. There will be 370 more security staff on-site during the month of June.

But where did all the staff go in the first place?

Dublin Airport have consistently stated that they’re short-staffed due to staff taking a voluntary redundancy during the pandemic – but they didn’t have to make these staff redundant. Irish airports received 23 million euro worth of funding during the pandemic for this reason.

https://twitter.com/hmcevansoneya/status/1530926381600743424?s=21&t=pp1dhGI8MGNTYKjgdTCH_A

Next weekend 100,000 passengers arriving and departing, with the daa insisting they will have the “optimum” number of workers in place. But why optimum? Why not go one step further and actually over-prepare?

The fast-track option in Dublin Airport has also been removed unless you’ve already purchased your ticket, so don’t get any ideas about attempting to get ahead next week.

Dublin can feel like a city only for tourists but with recent hikes in accommodation costs, shortage of taxis, increase in food prices and now, a non-functioning airport….what is it all for?

What has been going on in the airport is very much a management issue. The same management that now has a contract to run Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah airport.

Right.

With the daa’s “sure be grand” attitude and the Irish Government requesting emergency meetings on the issue, we’ll be waiting in anticipation to see what happens over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Elsewhere on District: Pictures of Senator Mark Daly used for 500,000 euro Tinder scam