RYANAIR CALLS ON DAA MONOPOLY TO REVERSE DUBLIN AIRPORT’S SERVICE FAILURES

ONLY HALF OF T1 SECURITY UNITS OPEN AT PEAK TIMES

2012-10-30 — /travelprnews.com/ — Ryanair, Europe’s only ultra-low cost airline, today (30 Oct) called on the DAA to immediately address the awful service levels at Dublin Airport where inadequate staffing has led to extensive queues at T1 security (with delays of up to 40 mins), causing severe stress and anxiety to passengers, some of whom end up missing their flights at certain times of the day.

The Dublin Airport Operators Committee (AOC) wrote to the Commission for Aviation Regulation in July calling for action, yet three months later, the situation has descended into farce. The AOC also called on Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar, to intervene and advised that an average 7 out of 13 (53%) security units have been unmanned during peak periods. By contrast, more generous T2 security staffing has prevented the unacceptable queues imposed on T1 passengers. In some cases, the DAA have routed T1 passengers through security at T2 due to the backlog, resulting in walks of over 1km for T1 passengers.

The DAA admitted at an AOC meeting last month that it is prevented from adequately staffing T1 security at certain times of the day because of staff working time agreements. Ryanair is calling on the DAA and Dept of Transport to take immediate action to eliminate these queues by instruct staff to ensure that all security points are adequately manned and to put the interests of the travelling public ahead of a DAA roster “agreement” which is clearly unfit for purpose.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said:

“Dublin Airport has experienced a substantial fall in passenger numbers due to the high costs imposed by the DAA monopoly. Passengers, who pay dearly to pass through one of Europe’s most expensive airports, continue to suffer the worst service levels of any of the 170 airports where Ryanair operates.

As we face into the busy winter period, Ryanair is calling on the DAA and the Department of Transport to address these abysmal service failures at Dublin Airport and ensure adequate staffing levels are provided in order to end the excessive security queues and delays at Terminal 1.

Despite weekly meetings between the DAA and airlines on this subject, no action has been taken and it is wrong that T1 passengers must suffer daily delays and inconvenience because DAA staff refuse to work at the times required to meet demand.”

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