Chaos at Dublin Airport

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119191645#Comment_119191645

What do you mean by 'spectators'? Ryan is meeting with DAA to find solutions.

I'm a spectator. I do nothing to solve the situation. What would Ryan do to make him not a spectators?

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192239#Comment_119192239

He is "the boss" so i expect he in charge. he made a statement a few weeks ago to say 24 hours with a plan. If he was in charge there is no way something like 1000 important state employees would have being let go. Meeting a year after cannot solve the problem. I have not heard any statement from either of the two transport ministers since the statement i mention. I may haver missed it.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192369#Comment_119192369

They managed to get through the bank holiday peak without major disruption. Wasn't that the objective of the whatever was in the statement? Isn't that the point above whether you or I saw any follow up statements?

macvin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192369#Comment_119192369

"state" employees. Are we in russia now?

DAA is a semi-state company. It operates as a private company with ultimate ownership being the state. It operates on a commercial basis and staff are not civil servants or "state employees" as you put it.

They got it wrong on ONE day. On that day they had no back-up plan for sudden absences, huge early surge of people and some staff had still not been fully qualified. Unlike may other airports around Europe and particularly the UK, they immediately created a new plan with back-up plan and that, as anyone has experienced, has worked very well.

People love to diss something local, but DAA are considered a world leader in airport retail and also manage two airports in Saudi Arabia and are renowned for their expertise. That they created and implemented a plan within 96 hours of the problem arising is actually testament to that.

BTW, if you actually checked, the number of those taking redundancy was under 800 and that was throughout all of its operations

Now I sit back and watch for more of the "you must work for" petty jibes - the reality is I can see through the wild sensationalism of social media and the gutter press, especially Ireland's version of the daily mail - the indo which has really fallen into the gutter since the belgian owners took over

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192496#Comment_119192496

I'd largely agree with this.

I criticise government as much as anyone. But I find it difficult to listen to someone who can never recognise when government or services work well or react well to problems when they arise.

I'd say DAA and the government reacted well and solved the problem of the peak period last weekend. There are longer term issues which they're working to address and the test of that work will come later in the summer.

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192496#Comment_119192496

They got it wrong one day? from what i read here it seems wrong every day with security delays. So the Government/DAA made 800 people reduntant and people are taking 3.5 hours at security and its ok. In the last two weeks i was at 2 international airports and security at both was about 15 mins.

There is clearly no-one in charge at Dublin Airport...

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119192758#Comment_119192758

I'd say your experience of the service working very well (mine was exactly the same at T2 last weekend, about 15 mins through security), shows that 3.5 hour queues were not considered acceptable. They did have some terrible queues which were not acceptable and they dealt with the short term problems while addressing the longer term problems.

Isn't that what we wanted them to do once the problem arose?

Its easy to turn Captain Hindsight and point out that they let too many staff go. It's true. They didn't have work for them, didn't know if covid would go away or re-emerge and suppress air travel again. My job involves investigating government spending. I can tell you that the only thing the public and politicians dislike more than acute under staffing, is prolonged overstaffed.

Imagine they retained all the staff (pay, holidays, pensions etc.), and covid re-emerge so there was little air travel again. You see a report about full-time security staff being paid to do no work, or even not come into work because there's no work. Do you think you would you say "God, DAA were very clever to retain all those staff on full pay, just in case covid went away and things were busy again"?

New2Dubs

I flew out of T1 on Thursday afternoon - took 45 mins to scan boarding pass / get through security. Plenty of staff in high vis jackets outside the terminal shouting & directing proceedings, but I couldn’t tell what value they added.

Most belts were operating at security, but frustrating to see only 3 metal detectors shared by all belts. This contributed to bottle necks of people queuing.

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193068#Comment_119193068

The current boss Daltonhas a salary that it would tale a person 0n what i read €14+/hour 15 years to earn, also board on big salaries €100k plus. Unfortunately they have failed.

Management is abouy foresight, failure is failure but you think hindsight. Politicians and management do not know or care. cost saving excercise. The employees were off on pandemic payment is what i read a year ago and were offered packages.

Out of interest do you know the salary of the security staff who were let go.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193125#Comment_119193125

I've no idea of the salaries of the people who were let go.

Now, I answered your question. Would you answer the question from my last post?

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193282#Comment_119193282

whats your question?

Spanish Eyes

Are the public areas and toilets clean now?

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193307#Comment_119193307

You quoted it in your last post. It was in relation to acute under resourcing vs chronic over resourcing. This was the question:

Imagine they retained all the staff (pay, holidays, pensions etc.), and covid re-emerge so there was little air travel again. You see a report about full-time security staff being paid to do no work, or even not come into work because there's no work. Do you think you would you say "God, DAA were very clever to retain all those staff on full pay when there was no work for them, just in case covid went away and things were busy again"?

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193345#Comment_119193345

COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP)

The Government created this payment and the daa decided to let people go instead of availing. So the agency who are Government controlled decided to go it alone. This is what created the mess.

Most companies and services went with Gov payment. Not the DAA.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/dublin-airport-passengers-left-without-luggage-for-more-than-a-week-41744050.html

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193377#Comment_119193377

Pup was great when there was no work. We're talking about a time when the rest of the country was opening up, but the airline business was still slow. So those peoppe had the choice of settling for €350 a week, or getting better paying jobs elsewhere.

In any case I've addressed your posts, you didn't answer the actual question I asked. I've asked it twice. It would be good if you'd give the question I asked a go.

asdfg87

Asked me what? your talking rubbish.

I arrived at Dub about this time last year and it was a mess then.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119193710#Comment_119193710

Don't worry about it. I asked a question 3 times and you didn't want to answer. Fair enough.

But you asked what question I was referring to twice, so I assume you don't actually read the posts you quote and reply to. It shows then level of discussion you're able for and how to weigh your opinions. It's instructive, whether you intended it to be so or not.

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119196603#Comment_119196603

I dont know what you want to know, i expect you don't know your self what your talking about.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119196735#Comment_119196735

I know you dont. I told you what I wanted to know in 3 posts. even posted the question twice and referenced it a third time. You quoted the question and asked "what question?". I'm not sure it's me whose confused.

Dont worry. I don't take it as a intentional. I assume you didn't understand the question so you're not going to address it.

asdfg87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119196788#Comment_119196788

Whats the question??

I flew out Monday morning and it took about an hour and twenty minutes to clear security. The queue outside took about twenty minutes to get into the terminal, then another thirty to scan boarding pass and another thirty to clear screening.

a few observations of note, all of which relate to T1:

It was packed and all the screening lanes seemed to be open, the delay was in part due to volume of people going through, although the staff seemed to be slower than usual.

As it is holiday season, there are a lot of stupid people going through the airport. the ones that despite being told about ninety times while queueing what to do, arrive at the belt with their coat on, belt on and toiletries still at the bottom of their suitcase. The same fuckwits then go through the metal detectors, take their belongings and leave the tray on the belt, or stand there and look at a belt full of stationary empty trays and somehow think the situation will resolve itself, rather than having the cop on to remove them and place them on the return chute.

Dublin airport is filthy and it isn't just the volume of people. The water fountains look completely unsanitary and the urinals in the gents have a think layer of dust on the top. This seems to be a case of they haven't been cleaned in days, let alone hours.

There seems to be a lot of things at the airport not working. one of the entrance barriers at the car park, an automatic door by the boarding gates, things like that. The the place just seems to have been completely neglected for a couple of years . T1 was starting to look a while back good and they seemed to be making a reasonable job of polishing a turd, but it seems they have now stopped and the turd is returning to its original form.

Floppybits

Will be going on an international flight next week, how are conditions at T2? Are they as bad as T1?

@[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] YES. A LOT of Stupid people.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119202701#Comment_119202701

Many years ago I came to the conclusion that you should suspend all critical facilities the moment you enter an airport.

You should not rely on anybody except yourself.

You will be lied to and treated like a fool.

Resistance is futile, just go with the flow 🙂.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119202614#Comment_119202614

"Do you have any liquids?"

Attractive well-tanned girl waits a good five seconds, then shakes her head.

Yep, this bag will be coming back for a second scan once they find the cosmetics at the bottom....

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119202820#Comment_119202820

There is a large bin just before you enter the terminal. That is where you dump your civil rights until you exit at the other end. How people fail to realise this is beyond me.

5 minutes and done through security in T1 at 10.00 this morning. Even with a random bag swab

Okay, Dublin airport is a shambles. on the tarmac for 3 hours because there are no ground crew to bring the tow bar to the plane to push back. Pilot saying he’s not being told anything and he’s got our destination airport manager to call Dublin airport to ask what the hell is going on.

a ton of Americans who’ll miss their connection. The ones behind me saying they’ll never come to Ireland again

a really shocking state of affairs. DAA have sorted the queues but nothing else seemingly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119202701#Comment_119202701

That irritates the life out of me. People not prepared at the security gates. If people could forgo their stupidity and have the cop on to organise their things as they approach tray collection that would solve a lot of the flow issues.

There almost needs to be an educational piece blaring repeatedly when in the queue

whisky_galore

Always have my stuff sorted, liquids, belt in bag, coins, jacket off etc, ready to fire into the crates. Bish, bosh, bang, minimum of fcuking about and I'm through security like sh1t from a goose.

Can't understand people not ready for this, as if they never took a flight in their lives.