Are queue ready for the BUSIEST weekend of year?
Airport braced for surge with more staff brought in
LONG queues are expected this weekend at Dublin airport with nearly 110,000 passengers expected to fly in or out of the travel gateway.
As schools close for the summer airlines have more than 300 flights scheduled each day to cope with the demand for holidays, with 321 flights planned for tomorrow alone.
Travel Writer Eoghan Corry said the next two days is the closest the airport will get to being full.
He told the Irish Mirror: “There are Croke Park figures estimated for this weekend. Around 50,000 will be leaving and 50,000 will be arriving, with Sunday and Monday being the busiest days.
“Up until around 10 years ago, the August bank holiday weekend was the busiest time of the year, that’s all changed now. It is now the last weekend in June that has taken over in terms of getaways.
“This time three years ago was the busiest day in the entire history of Dublin airport, on June 28, 2019, when 118, 480 people went through the airport that day.
“Monday won’t be far off it, we have over 300 flights every day this weekend, that’s as close to getting full as you’re going to get.”
With massive queues stretching out of Terminal One earlier this year, Mr Corry said Sunday and Monday will be “crunch days” for the airport.
He added: “Are they coping? Yes, they are. Thursday morning was trouble, in Terminal One and slightly in Terminal Two, but yesterday was fine.
“But that doesn’t mean Sunday and Monday will be fine. They have 30 extra people every week into the security team so that means you’re looking at something like 90 people, so the numbers are on their side.
“But you have to remember the number of flights are up as well. So, while they are getting extra security the number of passengers is also increasing.
“You have to remember around 240,000 went through on the June Bank Holiday weekend, over a five-day period. That’s only a few weeks ago, that was just over 80,000 a day each way. Now there’s going to be over 100,000 a day. That’s a massive jump in numbers.”
The airport made international headfriday lines earlier this month when 1,000 people missed their flights.
But in a statement yesterday the Dublin Airport Authority said it was coping well.
A spokesperson said: “The weekend has started well with our busy first wave on Friday morning seeing passengers get through security screening in under 30 minutes.
“Passengers are heeding our advice – to be at the airport 2.5 hours before a short-haul flight or 3.5 hours prior to a long-haul departure, with an additional hour if checking in a bag.
Meanwhile, German carrier Lufthansa is the latest airline to announce mass flight cancellations. It plans to scrap over 3,000 flights due to staffing issues and follows on from Easyjet’s cutting of hundreds of flights because of strike action.
It’s as close to getting full as you are going to get
EOGHAN CORRY ON WEEKEND NUMBERS