Passengers may have to wait in ‘holding bays’ during busy periods at Dublin Airport, DAA says

Dublin Airport Authority has announced that it may put passengers who arrive too early for flights in a holding bay in an effort to ease lengthy queues at the airport terminals.

The news comes after thousands of passengers missed their flights last weekend due to extensive queues caused by a lack of staff at the airport.

The airport authority was told by the Transport Oireachtas Committee that it must implement a plan to ease the problem before the June Bank Holiday Weekend.

In a statement published today, DAA said that “the changes are being implemented to prevent the issues which arose last weekend and regrettably resulted in a number of missed flights and to provide confidence and reassurance to all passengers flying out of Dublin Airport over the coming days and weeks.

“DAA is focusing on passenger experience improvements across three core areas: Maximising the staff resources available; increasing the number of security lanes open at peak times; and improving queue management.

“These queue management improvements will include the setup of a contingency triage mechanism to be utilised in the event of any unanticipated issues arising.

“For the coming June Bank Holiday weekend, daa will have an additional 40 security staff on duty to reduce the time it will take passengers to get through security screening.

“This increase in staffing numbers, combined with the option of a back-up triage mechanism is aimed at ensuring no passengers will miss their flight over the days and weeks ahead.”

The airport authority has advised passengers who are flying over the weekend to arrive at the airport at least two and a half hours before their departure time for short-haul flights and three and a half hours for long-haul flights.

“However, daa is recommending that any passenger who needs to check-in a bag should allow up to one hour in addition.

“In advance of arriving at the airport, passengers are reminded to check with their airline in advance regarding check in and bag drop times and adjust their arrival time accordingly.

“At times when the terminals get particularly busy, triaging access will be deployed to the terminals.

“This will restrict passengers from accessing the departures levels of the airport until within two-and-a-half hours before a short-haul flight or three-and-a-half hours before a long-haul flight.

“Anyone wishing to enter the terminals will be required to present documentation, such as booking confirmation or boarding card, indicating the time of their flight.”

The passenger holding bays will include bad weather covers, seating, and toilets, the airport authority says.

“With the deployment of these incremental measures and a robust plan in place, with additional contingency built in, daa is confident there will be no repeat of what occurred last Sunday in the period ahead.”