Dublin Airport has become the latest airport in the UK to suffer considerably with staff shortages as the summer season begins to surge. Major delays have meant that travellers over the Easter holidays have been held up.
Operating with insufficient man-power
Dublin Airport has been struggling for the past two weeks, and attributed its recent and current delays to a “shortage of security screening staff.”
Travellers in Dublin Airport have opted to share their negative experiences on social media. Videos on Twitter show queues extending outside and to the exit ramp.
Dublin Airport has been tweeting consistently to keep travellers informed and at ease. From 4 April, tweets regarding the busy environment at the airport began. Yesterday’s tweets echo the severity of the delays:
Our advice to passengers to arrive no more than three & a half hours ahead of departure time is being well observed. We have a steady flow of passengers in T1 where security remains open 24/7 & in T2 as many passengers arrive in advance of this morning’s first wave of departures.
— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) April 10, 2022
We are currently managing the flow of passengers into the terminal as part of a carefully planned process with the aim of keeping passengers safe and ultimately making sure passengers make their flights on time. We have 10 security lanes open in T1 and queues are moving steadily.
— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) April 10, 2022
To tackle the shortage of security screening staff, Dublin Airport re-introduced security queue times on 4 April. On 10 April, the Irish airline opened extra security lanes and introduced their “TaskForce” to assist operations.
Other attempts to improve the delays have been suggested. The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), the organisation that manages the security team at the airport, offered to triple staff’s wages if they work overtime. Individuals who earn £10 an hour will earn £30 an hour if they decide to take up extra hours to mitigate the impact of staff shortage.
The issues suffered by Dublin Airport are reminiscent of troubles across the UK’s airports, such as Manchester Airport.
Elsewhere, The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled earlier this week that passengers of non-EU carriers are entitled to seek compensation for delayed flights.
