It could be months before chaos at Dublin Airport subsides and the airport returns to normal operations, according to an industry expert.
Founder of Aer Lingus Regional, Pádraig Ó Céidigh, said it will take the summer to solve the crisis linked to staff shortages following pandemic lay-offs.
It comes amid fears this bank holiday weekend could see a repeat of chaotic queues, as close to a quarter of a million passengers are set to depart from the airport over the next five days.
“In my view, this will not be resolved until probably September/October time when it gets back to some normality again,” Mr Ó Céidigh told Newstalk radio.
“They will require a number of months to train up people, to employ an adequate number of people and so on for their 16 security lanes and other areas at the airport.
“So it’s going to take probably another four to six months to regularise the whole aught again and get Dublin Airport back to where it was.”
'Confident'
Dublin Airport operator Daa on Wednesday unveiled its plan for the June bank holiday weekend, with more screening staff and extra security lanes.
Daa spokesman Graeme McQueen this morning said he is “confident” that last weekend's chaos, which saw more than 1,000 passengers miss their flights, will not be repeated.
“We’ve learned the lessons from last weekend – we’ve looked at what went wrong and we’re going to make sure that that does not happen again,” he told Newstalk.
“It is going to be a busy weekend but we’re confident that we have the staffing levels where they need to be.”
Mr McQueen also defended plans to place passengers who arrive early for their flights in a holding area if the airport's terminals are too busy.
“We’re encouraging people only to turn up two and a half hours before a short-haul flight, three and a half hours before a long-haul flight,” he said.
“If you try and come too early and the airport is really, really busy, we’re creating a zone at the airport where we will ask you to wait for a period of time in order to allow the people who are flying out earlier to get through the airport.
“You’ll be held back for a while but that will be a comfortable space, and eventually when your time comes we’ll get you through the airport, through security.”
'Redeem the situation'
The Daa's plan was welcomed by chair of the Tourism Recovery Taskforce Ruth Andrews, who is also chairperson of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation.
“We now have an opportunity to redeem the situation and improve the process with advanced communications, which we anticipate will ensure a far better situation this weekend,” she told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.
It was impossible to predict the level of rebound that occurred in the tourism industry, Ms Andrews said, particularly given the length of Irish lockdowns and the challenges of the Omicron Covid-19 variant.
“Ireland had the longest lockdowns that impacted travel and tourism the most. We only had the lifting of those restrictions that impeded our businesses as late January and February. So we would only have had the confidence to actually start rebuilding our businesses really at that point,” she said.
“Let’s also remember we had the Omicron variant at that time which was impacting across the globe in various levels. It really, even at that stage, it was very difficult to predict with any certainty or to scenario plan as to how Irish tourism would recover.”
Ms Andrews said the disruption at Dublin Airport last weekend “didn’t do anything for our reputation internationally” but added that the situation was not a uniquely Irish phenomenon, noting queues at Manchester and Gatwick in the UK.
“I suppose Dublin Airport and indeed other airports globally are very visual representations of what is happening everywhere across the supply chain in travel and tourism,” she said.
Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley called for Daa CEO Dalton Philips to be sacked.
“I think the board should be gone. They should have fired the chief executive a number of weeks ago. I think they should have brought in some strategic management from some other airport,” he said.
Additional reporting: Olivia Kelleher
