The DUB Passport/Immigration Queue Thread

Hasschu

In a preceding comment I saw around 2,000 passengers were denied entry so far this year, some of those due to information on the Interpol database. In Canada and other countries the Customs and Immigration staff do not have to weed out bad apples from the passenger flow all they have to do is scan the passport and take a gander to see that the passenger bears a passing resemblance to the image on the passport. In Canada information on incoming passengers is received from the airline when their ticket is purchased. That information is then machine sorted against relevant databases, individuals who are flagged are met at the aircraft door by two and sometimes three armed police who take them to a soundproof room to sort out the issues. Is it not possible for Ireland to demand similar cooperation from airlines serving Ireland so that when delays at C & I exceed the norm the flow through can be stepped up with minimal risk. Domestic flights are usually small aircraft which at many airports around the world are handled out of mini terminals where people walk through to the aircraft through a metal scanner and ticket collector outbound and walk through without control inbound. In Detroit it was a collection of temporary trailers but it was a real convenience. Most airports already have a business jet building that provides service to what is quite a low volume of customers. All the complaints on here can be addressed but only if you lodge complaints with your TD and the airline. Tell the airline you are taking the boat unless the situation improves. The attitude is TINA (there is no alternative) so the suckers are helpless. You still have a vote which can become part of what is known as the loss of votes due to incumbent friction.

J.pilkington

Fred Swanson wrote: »

See the case of the Columbia 3 which ruled that an Irish Passport is not required to enter Ireland.

That's a different issue, see poster after you

joeysoap

I know someone who entered last year with no passport. kept passport in pocket of cabin bag, cabin bag taken at airport, forgot to remove passport. Just told Garda (immigration)what happened and the Garda told him to go on. (His partner however had her passport)I suspect if your clearly a Paddy and clearly coming in on a flight from Europe and are not specifically on a watch list you'd be ok.

The late AA Gill wrote an article for the ST a few years ago where he arrived at Dublin airport accompanied by Patrick Kielty who had forgotten to take his passport, bit of banter with the immigration official and Kielty was allowed through.

Fred Swanson

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jamo2oo9

Anybody know why the self-passport check machines aren't there anymore in T1? I seem to recall to have used it before either last Jan '17 or August '16. Is it a recent thing?

iancm25

Only one EU passport desk open in T2 at the moment. Joke of an airport.

Fred Swanson

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S.M.B.

Have arrived 3 times in the past 6 weeks.

T2 at ~4.00 and it was the first time ever I'd encountered any sort of sizeable queue. The queue stretched past the area where they at least had lanes to manage the numbers which is not ideal. People were getting pretty agitated as they did not know where to join the queue.

Similar thing happened the next time arriving into T2 at midday.

Arrived into T1 on Thursday morning at around 11.00 and there were only a handful of people in the queue. Made sure I was ahead of most that were on my flight though.

The Veteran

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

Anybody know why the self-passport check machines aren't there anymore in T1? I seem to recall to have used it before either last Jan '17 or August '16. Is it a recent thing?

Discussed earlier in the thread but ....

Original Gates were a pilot which has now been completed. Gates removed so that two additional ordinary desks could come back into use (hence empty space in middle of floor).

Tender completed for new Gates and contract placed with company. If you've used a Gate in the U.K., they will look "very similar". Public word is that they will be in use by late Autumn.

The Gates were out of use since the turn of the year really but only removed in the last 6/8 weeks or so.

homerjay2005

travelled outwards yesterday (back thursday) and seems the problems are at the other side now also - security.

huge queues, biggest ive seen in a year or two, but it was purely because the airport was very busy. however, the security scanners were only ~45% open (gates 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 15 were all closed with gate 5 only accepting fast pass and families with kids. )

so, on one of the busiest days of the year, staffing is at 40-50%. seems like a DAA issues to me and as a previous poster pointed out, they seem to believe that this is completely acceptable. if people are standing in security then they are not spending money.

Jamie2k9

homerjay2005 wrote: »

travelled outwards yesterday (back thursday) and seems the problems are at the other side now also - security.

huge queues, biggest ive seen in a year or two, but it was purely because the airport was very busy. however, the security scanners were only ~45% open (gates 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 15 were all closed with gate 5 only accepting fast pass and families with kids. )

so, on one of the busiest days of the year, staffing is at 40-50%. seems like a DAA issues to me and as a previous poster pointed out, they seem to believe that this is completely acceptable. if people are standing in security then they are not spending money.

Time it took?

20-25 minutes is perfectly acceptable during the bussiest weeks of the year. Security at DUB is one of the best in terms of processing compared to most European airports.

I really don't get the instant service requirement, you can pay extra if you want it.

daa are allowed to have queues up to 30 minutes or they get a fine.

LXFlyer

homerjay2005 wrote: »

travelled outwards yesterday (back thursday) and seems the problems are at the other side now also - security.

huge queues, biggest ive seen in a year or two, but it was purely because the airport was very busy. however, the security scanners were only ~45% open (gates 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10 and 15 were all closed with gate 5 only accepting fast pass and families with kids. )

so, on one of the busiest days of the year, staffing is at 40-50%. seems like a DAA issues to me and as a previous poster pointed out, they seem to believe that this is completely acceptable. if people are standing in security then they are not spending money.

Any chance you could put some context by putting the time of day that you're using the facilities in your posts please?

trellheim

Poster has a point - as a regular outbound on earlies through T1 at the moment its very evident that not all screening lanes are open at peak hours ( round 0530 ) .

However it usually moves fairly sharpish

Fred Swanson

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killbillvol2

Fred Swanson wrote: »

At least there is a way around the problem.

True.

Many airports offer fast track immigration for business/first class. Can't see that in Dublin any time soon.

joeysoap

Aren't we already charged for security checks when we make out booking? Fast track is a bit like the health service - we are all entitled to medical care ( paid for through taxes) but if we want to jump the queue we pay extra for health insurance. Ryanair getting into the swing of things now too with their new seating policy.

Who knows there might even be a fast track at the border when Brexit kicks in. :eek:

circular flexing

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Time it took?

20-25 minutes is perfectly acceptable during the bussiest weeks of the year. Security at DUB is one of the best in terms of processing compared to most European airports.

I really don't get the instant service requirement, you can pay extra if you want it.

daa are allowed to have queues up to 30 minutes or they get a fine.

Sorry but 25 minutes is not really acceptable, imo. Given that DAA recommend to arrive 90 minutes before a European flight then spending almost 1/3rd of that time in a security queue is madness.

I got caught short going through T1 recently. Arrived 2 hours before flight time, checked in about 10 minutes later, spent 25 minutes in security (one of my bags was pulled aside because I forgot to remove something which is completely my fault but they only had one person assigned to secondary checking of bags which slowed the whole process down hugely), my gate was 112 which is a fair walk from securirt and my flight started boarding early. It's a pity because it looks like T1 has changed a lot since the last time I was through it and I was looking forward to getting something to eat but they delays in security meant I had to scrap that plan.

jjbrien

circular flexing wrote: »

Sorry but 25 minutes is not really acceptable, imo. Given that DAA recommend to arrive 90 minutes before a European flight then spending almost 1/3rd of that time in a security queue is madness.

I got caught short going through T1 recently. Arrived 2 hours before flight time, checked in about 10 minutes later, spent 25 minutes in security (one of my bags was pulled aside because I forgot to remove something which is completely my fault but they only had one person assigned to secondary checking of bags which slowed the whole process down hugely), my gate was 112 which is a fair walk from securirt and my flight started boarding early. It's a pity because it looks like T1 has changed a lot since the last time I was through it and I was looking forward to getting something to eat but they delays in security meant I had to scrap that plan.

Agree there and the first hour in the airport for a passenger is what airport owners call the golden hour, which means the passengers are more likely to shop and spend money in their first hour in the airport. Queuing for 30 mins takes a large cut out of that time and passengers are more likely just to head to the gates than stop and shop. So the DAA are loosing revenue to this but are too short sighted to see it. Gatwick had the same problem a few years ago and spent a fortune on security to get people in fast so they can spend.

J.pilkington

circular flexing wrote: »

Sorry but 25 minutes is not really acceptable, imo. Given that DAA recommend to arrive 90 minutes before a European flight then spending almost 1/3rd of that time in a security queue is madness.

I got caught short going through T1 recently. Arrived 2 hours before flight time, checked in about 10 minutes later, spent 25 minutes in security (one of my bags was pulled aside because I forgot to remove something which is completely my fault but they only had one person assigned to secondary checking of bags which slowed the whole process down hugely), my gate was 112 which is a fair walk from securirt and my flight started boarding early. It's a pity because it looks like T1 has changed a lot since the last time I was through it and I was looking forward to getting something to eat but they delays in security meant I had to scrap that plan.

You can hardly expect the DAA to factor in time in their arrival recommendation time for passengers to have food / pints / shopping / laze around, it's clearly common sense that if you want to do these things you factor that in.

JCX BXC

J.pilkington wrote: »

You can hardly expect the DAA to factor in time in their arrival recommendation time for passengers to have food / pints / shopping / laze around, it's clearly common sense that if you want to do these things you factor that in.

Really? Jaysus news to me, and I thought that airports tell you to arrive 2 hours early so they can get money from ya in the duty free shop! (They do)

Jamie2k9

circular flexing wrote: »

Sorry but 25 minutes is not really acceptable, imo. Given that DAA recommend to arrive 90 minutes before a European flight then spending almost 1/3rd of that time in a security queue is madness.

I got caught short going through T1 recently. Arrived 2 hours before flight time, checked in about 10 minutes later, spent 25 minutes in security (one of my bags was pulled aside because I forgot to remove something which is completely my fault but they only had one person assigned to secondary checking of bags which slowed the whole process down hugely), my gate was 112 which is a fair walk from securirt and my flight started boarding early. It's a pity because it looks like T1 has changed a lot since the last time I was through it and I was looking forward to getting something to eat but they delays in security meant I had to scrap that plan.

daa say to arrive a minimum of than 90 minutes before your departure, ie if every airport passenger did that then there would be a lot of missed flights. On some of the bussiest weeks of the year 25 minutes is perfectly acceptable. It would be an issue if it was happening all day and month after month but its not.

Spanish Eyes

Security is an outbound thing. There can be glitches and delays, but for the most part it works well.

That is because DAA know the longer you have before your departure after security, the more you might spend in the concourse.

The opposite is the position for arrivals.

Nothing in it for DAA. Everyone wants to get through immigration, pick up their bags (if checked) and get the hell out of Dodge.

See what I mean?

Fred Swanson

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The Veteran

There are very big numbers going through the airport at the moment. "Equivalent of Crime Park" used to be the measure for a daily throughput; now the average is running at upwards and over 100,000 in a day. This time of year the profile is different - more tourists, more children, more luggage, more flights. Combined it means the passenger flows contain lots of occasional travellers versus the seasoned pros you get the rest of the year. There is a world of difference between a London City arrival and say a charter from any of the Sun spots, for example.

plodder

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

Security is an outbound thing. There can be glitches and delays, but for the most part it works well.

That is because DAA know the longer you have before your departure after security, the more you might spend in the concourse.

The opposite is the position for arrivals.

Nothing in it for DAA. Everyone wants to get through immigration, pick up their bags (if checked) and get the hell out of Dodge.

See what I mean?

Except that it isn't good for the DAA if Dublin gets a bad rep for long delays on arrival.

It probably helps the regional airports and the NI airports, which maybe isn't a bad thing overall, but I don't see why the DAA would be happy with it, long term.

Jamie2k9

plodder wrote: »

Except that it isn't good for the DAA if Dublin gets a bad rep for long delays on arrival.

It probably helps the regional airports and the NI airports, which maybe isn't a bad thing overall, but I don't see why the DAA would be happy with it, long term.

It's not going to stop passengers flying from DUB. While the border situation is not idea it's still pretty good when compared with many other airports.

Spanish Eyes

plodder wrote: »

Except that it isn't good for the DAA if Dublin gets a bad rep for long delays on arrival.

It probably helps the regional airports and the NI airports, which maybe isn't a bad thing overall, but I don't see why the DAA would be happy with it, long term.

I doubt DAA care much really TBH.

Who suffers from delays on arrival really?

The passenger
The tourist, who might moan but will get over it
The business people (Brexit dividend my foot)

The airlines don't care either, and why should they. They don't run the airport, just pay the usual fees.

DAA do not care - repeat prescription! They will only act if our reputation is ruined, and some TD has a strop or the DFA gets a kick up the eighties.

joeysoap

A few years ago we were flying to Lisbon. T2 with AL. Sunday morning flight. Queues for security were horrendous, so much so passengers departing to US were panicking and asking people could they 'duck' under the ropes. Everybody let them. And there was hundreds of them. We actually arrived early as Mrs Soap intended to do some shopping. But that didn't happen.

When we returned home I sent an email to the DAA complaining that there was 2 (two) security (this is before the baggage checks, before you get that far)points open, one left and one right. And when we got through and checked the screens there was 4 USA flights departing (besides the 'regular' departures) and they should have had more staff on at that time, and that they should have been aware of that.

Got a very curt reply back that it was a balancing act to have the correct number of staff on duty. No apology.

J.pilkington

Spanish Eyes wrote: »

I doubt DAA care much really TBH.

Who suffers from delays on arrival really?

The passenger
The tourist, who might moan but will get over it
The business people (Brexit dividend my foot)

The airlines don't care either, and why should they. They don't run the airport, just pay the usual fees.

DAA do not care - repeat prescription! They will only act if our reputation is ruined, and some TD has a strop or the DFA gets a kick up the eighties.

I think that very shortsighted, here are some counter arguments;

- there are rival airports that the DAA don't own (Belfast x2, Kerry, knock & Shannon and potentially Waterford)
- airlines will care, especially t1 airlines if regular passengers choose aer lingus over them because the risk of long queues is reduced
- families may see this as another hassle not worth accepting in terms of the hassle flying brings with young families and may use another airport / domestic / ferry

I really don't see what a TD can / would do about it, do you really think of a. A person would complain and b. A TD would use their limited Dail to raise, that's daft.

trellheim

I went over and back to LCY yesterday

Security outbound at T1 at 0605 had only approx 50% of the lanes working, however it was reasonably quick to get through.


I came through T1 last night at 21:55

Half empty hall

One - exactly one - hatch for non eu passports - and before anyone tells me that's a fib - there was exactly one lit sign "Non EU Passports"

the rest of the EU passports were on a go-slow by all appearances, the queue was moving at only < half the speed as usual , the boss must have been around watching. Coming from the 200 gates, time from entrance to the queue to exit to baggage hall 9 minutes 45 seconds.

The queueing system to the new immigration desks need to be really looked at , its a bottleneck