Dublin grinding to a halt

[Irish Steve]

Is it just me, or has DUB at last reached meltdown?

I was in there last Friday for an early flight to EMA, and the queues to get through security were longer than the ones I saw a while back in ATL!!!

This was 0610, and at that stage, albeit on the friday before the bank holiday, the queues to each end of the security scan to get airside were so long, they met in the middle of the terminal, and that was after they'd opened up the disney look alike queue snake management systems. Took about 20 minutes to get through, which makes a mockery of the idea of arriving at 30 minutes before departure, which is in theory legal.

If that wasn't enough to be annoying, we then arrived back into DUB at 2245 last night, and the bags from the 737, (and there were not that many with checked bags) took close on 35 minutes for them to arrive on the belt.

Arrivals looked like a disaster area, unclaimed bags lying around all over the place, on belts, on the floor, as well as all around the handling agents desk area, all in all, a very unprofessional appearance.

Is there ever going to be movement on a second terminal?

[andyb79]

are you talking about the desks or getting through to departures? i used to travel to dublin quite often and was always amazed at the queues for a certain irish airline (not ryanair). They seemed to combine check-in for all all flights to the UK, which resulted in people snakeing round half the departure terminal waiting for two desks! its not fun at 6:30 on a monday morning!

[MarkD]

well if the Dublin meeja are to be believed, that certain airline has had great success with selfservice check-in... anyone actually used it?

security was referred to as the blockage in the first post, so Aer Rianta's fault.

[Platinum206]

Steve,

The meeting of the two ques in the centre is in fact not an uncommon occurence at that time of the morning especially. Friday of a bank holiday weekend I'm suprised you didn't have to queue out onto the departures road.

Turning up for check-in -30mins to departure is just a bit too much to expect. Most airlines close their flights between -45/-30 prior to departure, which with the often long security queues and sometimes distant walks to the gates is still cutting it a little fine.

Boarding of most schedule flights on average is supposed to commence -20mins prior to scheduled departure with doors closed supposedly at -5mins. It is because of passengers like yourself showing up late to check-in, getting delayed in security and so on that flights get delayed, whilst the ramp crew are looking for yor bags to offload, miss atc slots and push delays on throughout the day ultimately causing untold extra costs for the airlines and a major inconvienience for hundreads of passengers for the rest of the day.

Thats my bit of steam let off for today!

P206

[Tom the Tenor]

Ninety per cent of all Irish air traffic flies in and out of Dublin Airport and Aer Rianta are the airport managers.

Dont expect much and you will not be disappointed.

Passengers and aircraft are a headache and an inconvenience to be discouraged as much as possible.

I know, I come from Cork.

[Caribs]

Couldn't agree more Tom, Aer Rianta would appear to have difficulty organising the proverbial p**s up in a brewery. The airlines are attempting to meet demand with more and more flights concentrated around core hours and Aer Rianta appear happy to accept these flights without taking into account the lack of facilities to process the bodies through security. Much as I normally dislike agreeing with MOL Dublin desparately needs another terminal. Its been bad for years but looks likely to only get worse.

[no, no, no]

P206,

I don't think it is fair blaming the pax for this type of problem.

If an airline states that you only have to turn up 30 mins before departure for example, then if a passenger decides to turn up 32 mins before depature he should expect to get through on time and not have problems.

If the airlines get fed up by this then it is up to them to state that the desk will close 45 or 60 mins prior to departure - but when you're trying to attract a business passenger who is trying to get the most out of his time, and who may well be involved in meetings or visits, this will only deter them.....

It is up to the airlines and airports to work together on this to ensure that whatever is sold to the pax is achievable....

[runawayedge]

P206
That airline's policy of combining all flights is mad. It is not a pax turning up late issue. It is a lack of desks.....lack of urgency....general disdain towards economy pax! Be interesting to conduct a time in motion study. Have stood there for up to 45 mins regularly in the morning. The problem lies with Aer Rianta and the airline.

[Irish Steve]

Platinum206

It is because of passengers like yourself showing up late to check-in, getting delayed in security and so on that flights get delayed, whilst the ramp crew are looking for yor bags to offload, miss atc slots and push delays on throughout the day ultimately causing untold extra costs for the airlines and a major inconvienience for hundreads of passengers for the rest of the day.

Well, all I can say to that is that although I mentioned the concept of arriving at -30, and in very controlled circumstances, at airports a *lot* smaller than DUB I have arrived that late, we were'nt late, we arrived at DUB 85 mins before due launch,:= in that (a) I'm well used to this sort of scenario, so don't take risks, especially if I'm on a LoCo, and (b) until a couple of months ago, I *was* a ramper, also at DUB, so I know *exactly* how much pain and aggravation is caused by pax that are hidden in what has become Ireland's largest pub :O

I've been travelling through DUB for over 15 years, and it seems that it's got way worse this summer, I suspect because there's only 6 scanners at the entrances to airside, the volumes are ever increasing, and at peak times, there's no way that's enough to cope with the volumes being processed. Mornings are particularly bad now, as there are significant Trans atlantic wide body flights all leaving AM, added to all the european and local flights.

Yes, the other issues of the way check in is organised, and some of the other things mentioned are also relevant, to me, as a long term user of many airports, the big issue is that Aer Rianta seem to have lost the plot big time, and spend more time trying to persuade people to get well and truly loaded with drink (internally and externally) than in trying to ensure that they get where they are supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there!

One of the craziest things in that respect is that there are no PA speakers in the bar areas, so the massive effort being made by gate staff for "passenger X, please proceed *immediately* to gate XX where your flight is awaiting departure" etc is completely wasted as the :mad: in the bar isn't even hearing it.

I'm not even going down the road of discussing the shambles of the "newer" part of the baggage hall, the shambles that is the long term parking and transportation, or some of the other insane things that go on. Suffice to say that the planned changes that are about to be forced on Aer Rianta are probably the best thing that's happened to DUB in a long time, some of the people at the higher levels of the food chain might actually have to start thinking about the reason they are there!!

[Eh Hello?]

why do so few passengers use EI's new self service check-in boxes? Regularly the queue for the 3 - 4 desks is snaked around three times but nobody is at any of the dozen self service units? Why not give a rebate to the customer for using self service?

EI make a big play about giving a better product than Ryan (pre allocated seats etc.) - personally, I would prefer to queue in a single flight queue for FR than join the Disneyland-like queue for EI in the morning. At least that way you will have at most 100 or so ahead of you, all for your flight, so you're all in the same boat if the check-in agent is slow. rather than many times this for multiple EI flights.

[runawayedge]

Why don't they use it? hmmm where to start!
Having once used it when first introduced.

(a) You need a passport....so travelling to the UK as the vast bulk of the dragon train will be are excluded

(b) What does one do with hold baggage?

(c) The abundance of EI help and assist have now disappeared

So, you've tried it and failed and now you must re-join the queue, costing another ten minutes.....will tech minded pax try again....doubt it

Great idea....badly thought through!

[davork]

Runawayedge,

I've been using the machines as much as I can when flying btw LHR and DUB

a) You don't always need a passport. Credit card and FF card normally do
b) Check in luggage can be dropped of at the special designated desks. They are normally at the end of the check in rows, near security. Heck, if you want to queue jump you can sometimes get away with checking in there too(!)
c) I think the help is on permanant coffee break - or struggling to fight its way through the 20 minute security queue to go on vacation!

As I said in b)... if the machine breaks, go to the fast drop queue and tell them!!!

One downside of the red machines is that they won't let you checkin for EI code shares on BA metal - 'the computers don't talk' is the excuse!

[apaddyinuk]

Irish Steve...

Please dont tell me your actually stupid enough to arrive at an airport at -30????? Most airlines simply state this as the last possible time you have to check in because they obviously need to draw the line somewhere. But if you plan for that then you are really going to let yourself down and on a regular occasion. One hour would be the most realistic minimum check in time and thats for any airport...not just the mockery that is dublin airport!

[Irish Steve]

Please dont tell me your actually stupid enough to arrive at an airport at -30????? Most airlines simply state this as the last possible time you have to check in because they obviously need to draw the line somewhere. But if you plan for that then you are really going to let yourself down and on a regular occasion. One hour would be the most realistic minimum check in time and thats for any airport...not just the mockery that is dublin airport!

As I think I mentioned earlier, we arrived for the EMA flight at -85, and normally I work on that sort of timing. A good few years ago, if you arrived at BRS for the early DUB (SH360) too early, there was no one there to check it in anyway. One auspicious occasion, assisted it was true by a mobile call, as a result of an accident on the M5, BRS very kindly allowed me to get away with a -5 arrival, but that was in no way planned to be so tight.

My concern is that the shambles at DUB is getting worse by the week, and there seems to be no will or capability to do anything to improve the situation. to compare, on a recent trip, a group of 4 pax, it took an hour and 5 to get from the check in to the gate, but that was at MCO, and with the present checks and aggravations on the other side of the pond, we'd allowed for that, even though we were on an internal for the first leg.

Coming back to the DUB scenario, to have to allow up to 2 hours check in for a 35 minute flight with no bags is getting slightly crazy however, but that's the sort of times that are being suggested on peak days at DUB.

That's just not the way it's supposed to be, it's getting to the stage where the delays on the M50 and M1, and the time then taken getting from the long stay parking to the terminal, on top of the terminal delays mean that travelling by road and using the high speed ferry is almost quicker to some of the LPL/MAN area!!!

[DUBXH]

Thank god that somebody has finally noticed EI getting away with murder !!!

Not trying to put anybody down but well we are Irish and the vast majority of people going through DUB are Irish and watching some old dear 1) try and work those lovely red boxes would be quite an interesting sight. 2) Watch an old dear try and find an EI check in desk to check them in with your UK Provincal, Europe, US, All Flights blah blah... These are quite reasonable things to display on monitors but folks there is a rule when working in Airports... "People leave their brains outside" which is semi true... Being in an Airport can be quite a disorientating thing for people and with EI's not very helpful approach to passenger herding, AZ's ticket desk display of "Alitalia questions only" and Servisair Globeground's sign of "All Tour operators are located.... BIG ARROW" PAX are set to become more disorientated. I have a few points here... It is like the Staff of Dublin Airport and indeed the Companys are fecking passenger service out the door. Then you need to ask is "The Green Machine" being given preferncial treatment by Aer Rianta? on a landside point of view they do... They constantly need to be encouraged to open more desks by customer airlines not that that will matter much anymore. On an Airside point of view Stand Allocation goes flying out the bloody window if a Shamrock needs a stand... "We know your on time and putting you remote will screw you for the next 36 hours but EI need a stand" stretching to "I cant pull the bridge off cos there is the old EI 747 tug in the way again, lets just wait an hour for them to come and shift it"

I had a tech issue last week and needed to get an engineer down route quickly and the only helpful person I could find was suprisingly The Ryans.. As much as MOL is blasted on here... I like him and his staff... Walsh could learn a lot more when dining with O'Leary

[flaps to 60]

Irish Steve

Its as bad coming in as well....I once waited for 1 hr for my bags to come of an ATR. What pissed me off was that there were only 4 pax collecting 5 bags.

DUBXH

Your right EI has been getting away with murder recently. Every single flt i've taken recently or the wife, friend or family has been at least one hour late and everything in between up to 4 hours.

I asked them why our a/c was late......technical problem earlier in the day they replied.....i asked why not use the service back up..........we have no service back up............(half an hour later)..........we have a service back up but no standby crew. I looked straight through her and just went back to sit down dumbstruck.

EI has gone from a reasonable airline to a crap airline since Wee Willy Winky took over and i fear it will only get worse asa he chases the business model of the worst of the lot.......FR.

Im now between a rock and a hard place when i go to DUB except when i go from LHR as EI doesn't get a look in.

Good luck