Chaos at DUB

[DUBXH]

Can anyone local actually tell me is any airline didnt depart using DL 85/???? ?

It was an absolute joke, First and foremost the fact that the ASU/DAA were feeding PAX through the "Staff Entrance" causing staff to be late to the gate for their relevant flights and not only that but up to a two hour Q to get through friskim !! Passengers running from the Departure Gates trying to put their shoes back on and belt's in the other hand and when the DAA were confronted about it they simply said "It is a problem between the Airline and the Passenger" Another complete mess up by the glorious DAA and another case of passing the book.

News Link (http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0417/airport.html)

[eoinok]

I totally agree with the comment "It is a problem between the Airline and the Passenger"
That is a complete joke. Watching the coverage on RTE news.
Look at this in real terms. Check in only opens 2 hrs before departure of flights. Takes you 2 hrs to get through security. How is this not the DAA's fault??

They are providing a service to you indirectly. You pay for your "landing fee" indirectly when you pay for your ticket.

Mick O Leary will have enough ammo here to hurl at the DAA and Bertie etc for the rest of his life over terminal 2 at DUB.

[WATABENCH]

Sounds very similar to the debacle we had in BRS over the summer, DFT actually asked the security to do their job properly and the whole airport fell apart, the queues were snaking from departure lounge twice around by the shops and then down the stairs into check-in hall and all the way back to the BA ticket desk, If you've ever been to BRS you'd know it made quite a queue, suprised the press didnt pick up on it, it was terrible, didnt help with the airport putting tannoys out to advise pax to only attend the dept loung an hour before their flight, to add to it, it was a Sat morning which is the busiest period in the summer for BRS, most flights departed with at least a 20 min delay, mine went with 40 mins, we debated whether it should of been DL85(Mandatory security) or DL97(Airport facilities) or DL15(Boarding) think it went down to DL85 in the end as every other airline was going down as the same EZY/BY/MYT/FCA/BA etc it was the most rediculous thing i've ever seen.

[DUBXH]

So when it comes to a common sight at peak times in DUB for staff to be queuing for check-in desks to actually commence check-in at the requested opening time by the DAA of two hours prior to STD is this still regarded as acceptable ?

Variant on the airline themselves check in is most commonly opened at 3 hours prior, more so the charter operations....

[Irish Steve]

The chickens have come home to roost, but unfortunately, it's unlikely any heads will roll, as DAA is a semi state organisation, so firing someone for poor performance would be a total culture shock to the entire civil service and semi state structure, so it's not going to happen.

The entire security system at DUB has ground to a halt, as a result of "enhanced" security due to the failure of the audit last weekend.

The worrying thing is that we're nowhere near peak volumes yet, the summer hasn't even started to kick in yet, and passengers were taking up to 2 HOURS today to get through the security scan.

Only passengers were being allowed into the departure area today due to congestion and overcrowding, and a spokesman for DAA admitted on this evening's news that the problems will continue "for some time, especially at peak periods".

The most worrying aspect is that DAA are trying to suggest that if a passenger misses their flight due to DAA's delaying them, it is not DAA's responsibility!!!!!

It looks to me like a massive kick up the a:mad:e of the management of DAA is called for, along with an urgent review of the contracts of the senior managers, who should be taken to court for their manifest and total failure to provide adequete and appropriate facilities to process the traffic that is booked.

[Tom the Tenor]

Dublin crumbles - loafers rumbled!

[Flame]

I'll bet that the DAA had none of their people out with clipboards checking on how long it takes to get through security at Dublin, like they have when checking the airlines, to make sure that they have checkin desks open and enough of them staffed for flights..!!

Just because the DAA is a semi state body, should not mean heads cannot roll....Fire the top man, he is responsible for Dublin, how in gods name can he collect his salary and have no responsibility at all..its arrogant of him to stay in his job

[bear11]

It's bad enough being incompetent, but insulting your intelligence too?

I listened to a guy from Dublin Airport on this subject on the radio this morning and had to scrape my jaw up off the floor afterwards. The PR spin is that:

1) there was no problem with security in the first place, as everything was up to scratch before the radical changes were made.

2) there's really no problem with queues other than a small spot of bother yesterday Sunday at peak hours, outside of that it's about 30 minutes and "sure I was walking through the terminal just now to do this interview and just happened to look at departures, and people were walking straight through then" - very scientific that, I feel much better now.

3) The usual "everything is being done" bo**ocks without specifying what was actually being done, how long the problem would last before they got a handle on it, and how much they were going to take out of his wages until it was sorted out.

4) the piece de resistance was the "you can help us" routine - fair enough, but then the man had the brass ones to suggest that people were not going straight from check-in through security, that they were going off for breakfast upstairs and wandering around instead of joining the 30 minute maximum security queue, and sure no wonder they'd be late for their flights then?


This guy suggested checking in 90 minutes before the flight was plenty of time (presumably unless of course, you wandered upstairs for breakfast). My parents are flying to the US midweek and rang the airport last night understandably slightly freaked about missing their flight - the girl they spoke to advised them to be there 3 hours in advance as the transatlantic flight check-in is open 3 hours beforehand.

One can get tired at times hearing Michael O'Leary ranting on about the airport, but I'd bet that anybody who's experienced what's been happening there in the last week would be more than willing to let him loose in the place with a chainsaw - which, presumably from what we're being told, he could have walked straight through security with 2 weeks ago.

[WHBM]

Unfortunately the management who organised the security arrangements that failed the audit are the same ones who have now organised something that now inconveniences the passengers more, doubtless without giving any additional security at all.

It's a typical public service response whenever they are officially criticised - spit the dummy out and mess everybody about. It reminds me of the response of the London Fire Brigade to the official report into the Kings Cross Underground station fire - the report actually dared to criticise the firemen on a whole host of issues, as a result of which they became immensely "difficult" with anything to do with the Underground, and would shut whole stations down on the slightest pretext, pretending it was in the name of safety when it was anything but.

Dublin airport security has always been reasonably efficient technically (they found scissors in my bag that had escaped the UK airport on the outward sector), a bit disorganised, and notably rude. A microcosm of Dublin overall I suppose.

The main cause of any security queue is insufficient resources applied to the job, usually of staff. It is the job of the airport operator to ensure they are adequately staffed, and ultimately the responsibility of the commercial airline you have paid money to travel with, whose job is to organise all the elements of the journey (whether it is their fuel supplier, maintenance contractor or airport operator) for you. I always count the number of security stations in place and the number actually staffed while waiting in the queue. The ratio is rarely more than 60%.

I presume someone has called for the head of security at Dublin airport to be dismissed over two separate cockups (failing the audit, then being unable to do the job properly once caught).

[Irish Steve]

passengers have now been caught right in the middle, and forced to pay for the incompetence of the DAA security shambles.

2 airlines have today confirmed that they are not refunding passengers who missed flights, while DAA say that the passengers must deal with the airlines after delays at security checks meant they missed their flights.

For more details, see this (http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0418/airport.html)

At this stage, heads within DAA should roll, and be seen to do so.

For DAA to try and pretend that they were caught out, and that there are "no problems" at the airport is a total disgrace, and they are lying through their teeth. The problems at security have been known for months, and it is only that they have now been forced to correct the glaring errors in the whole system that things have now got the point of meltdown.

As to the effectiveness or otherwise of the security checks, that's a debate for another place and time, right now, what's needed is a management at DUB that is prepared to run an international airport, and if that means a few retail outlets, or even worse, some bar space has to be sacrificed in order to make the place work as an airport, which is what it is supposed to be, then that decision should be made for them by the government, at the same time as they remove the people that are directly responsible for this fiasco.

The soft easy option is no longer there. Hard urgent decisions that deal with the real issues are needed, yesterday.

[cormacshaw]

bear11 wrote:...the (DAA) man had the brass ones to suggest that people were not going straight from check-in through security, that they were going off for breakfast upstairs and wandering around instead of joining the 30 minute maximum security queue, and sure no wonder they'd be late for their flights then?
Actually, while (rightly) putting the boot in to DAA's management and the government during an interview on Newstalk106 this evening over the security delays, Michael O'Leary himself said that the only Ryanair passengers to actually miss their flights were the ones that having queued for ages at security then went shopping in duty free. As the saying goes, they keep making bigger and better idiots.

[bear11]

While there will always be people who haven't learned to tell the time yet and believe that since they've checked in the aircraft can't go without them, these particular stories are pathetic attempts at throwing smoke bombs around the real issue. Is anyone seriously suggesting that normal (as opposed to brain-dead) passengers who get through security late with 10 minutes left to pushback are going to go and buy some duty-free when there ain't duty-free no more, rather than run to the gate? The DAA say deal with the airline if you missed your flight, the airline say deal with the DAA, and both suggest that passengers may be at fault by buying breakfast and duty-free. Mick never did anything to help the DAA, so we can only assume he's fireproofing his own arse apart from taking the opportunity to talk about another terminal.

[irishair2001]

Two friends of mine ,one a wheelchair bound passenger arrived on a EI flight at DUB from ACE in the early hours of Sunday 20th March Last and where told that the airbridge was broken so the aircraft would have to park out from the terminal and they would have to disembark by the steps,when they asked for the assistance for my wheel chair bound friend,they where told there was none available,the crew expedited the aircraft very quickly and they where left in the company of girl from ground ops who seemed to be at a loss as to what to do and then someone else came on board "to park the aircraft,but could not do so because of passengers still on board and after visiting the cockpit he left the aircraft, with the cockpit door wide open,the girl from ground ops left as well to make a phonecall to find out about assistance for my friends,who at this stage where all alone on a EI A321 looking into the cockpit thru the open door.
Eventually the girl from ground ops returned with two men,who had to be got out of there beds and brought in to the airport to render assistance,anyhow the helped my friend off the aircraft and into his wheelchair (which had been waiting at the bottom of the steps since shortly after the aircraft arrived),the two guys helped them into the terminal which was desserted and tried to open a door in a corridor with their security swipe cards,but the door would not open,the guys reconed it was because they were not supposed to be on duty,that their security passes where not validated,then one of the guys put his hands inbetween the two doors and pulled them open,no alarms sounded and no lights flashed,my two friends,one in the wheelchair and the other one pushing him where now lft to make their way on their own thru passport control,which was desserted and after calling out several times for some one to check their passports,they heard nothing and saw no one the then proceeded thru the desserted baggage claim area with large numbers of bags lying around,they could have helped themselves to any of them,they exited the baggage hall to join their wives who at this stage were highly stressed,because they had got off the aircraft over 2 hous earlier.

My point is ,that I have emailed this detail of events to Aer Lingus 8 times and have not even recieved a response and a complaint has been sent in writing,again with no response, I then e mailed this to the Security Section of the Department of Transport on April 3 rd.
They acknowledged my e mail and told me thst the day to day running of Aer Lingus was a matter for the board and management of Aer Lingus,but that some elements of the story raised some issues that gave cause for concern and that one of there inspectors would contact my friends to discuss it.

Nearly 3 weeks later and nothing amid shock .horror and disbelief at the media revelations of security lapses.