The Daa has confirmed it has no plans to implement a limit, or cap, on the number of passengers departing Dublin Airport on a daily basis.
European airports have been creaking under pressure this summer, as pent-up post-Covid travel demand has resulted in a surge in passenger numbers at a time when under-resourced airports are still struggling to recover from two years of virtual inactivity, and resulting dwindling staff numbers.
A number of European airports – including Amsterdam and London’s Heathrow – have imposed passenger caps.
Heathrow, which has capped departing passenger numbers to 100,000 per day until September 11, asking airlines to stop selling extra tickets in the process, this week formally apologised to passengers for “unacceptable” levels of poor customer service in recent weeks.
However, the Daa – which operates both Dublin and Cork airports – has said no such moves will be made here.
Daa media relations manager, Graeme McQueen said: “While other airports around Europe and the UK have opted to cancel hundreds of flights each day, in order to cope with the challenges resulting from the high demand for international travel, Dublin Airport has avoided such actions.”
“Whilst many thousands of families in the UK and other European countries have seen their summer holidays wiped out by flight cancellations, the hard work of our staff, combined with the rollout of effective contingency plans at Dublin Airport, is ensuring that Irish families are getting away this summer. Any flight cancellations to date have been the result of decisions made entirely by the airlines themselves,” Mr McQueen added.
Dublin Airport catered for more than 2.8 million passengers last month. Mr McQueen said three out of every four of them passed through security in under 30 minutes and 93% of passengers got through in less than 45 minutes.
Mr McQueen said: “This progress has continued over the past two weeks – two of our busiest weeks of the year so far with in excess of 50,000 passengers departing almost every day. Last weekend saw the vast majority of the more than 50,000 passengers per day pass through security in less than 30 minutes. With the number of security screening staff available to us now back at 2019 levels, and with around 80 more set to be hired during July, we are confident that passengers will continue to see an improvement in the experience at Dublin Airport over the period ahead.“
