[Article] Air and train services braced for huge onslaught

Victor

http://home.eircom.net/content/unison/national/5472667?view=Eircomnet

Air and train services braced for huge onslaught
From:The Irish Independent
Saturday, 30th April, 2005

THOUSANDS of people will take to the roads, rail and air this weekend as May Bank holiday weekend marks the start of the busy summer travel season.

Some 250,000 people are expected to pass through Dublin airport over the weekend with passenger numbers up 8pc on the same period last year. The number of charter flights leaving Dublin airport over the Bank Holiday weekend is about 200 with popular destinations like Lanzarote, Gran Canaria as well as Majorca set to receive an influx of Irish tourists.

According to the Dublin Airport Authority, delays to get to the security screening areas - which had been experienced over the past number of weeks - have eased greatly with 20 extra security staff in place and 13 security channels now open instead of 11. An additional 40 security staff are just completing training and will be operational in the coming weeks while a further security channel will be open in the next few weeks.

New security measures introduced following a lapse in security at the airport during an EU security audit earlier this month caused major delays for passengers with some airlines reporting that passengers were missing flights as a result of the queues. However, Dublin Airport Authority yesterday said the additional staff and arrangements meant that average queuing time to get to security screening was now around 16 minutes. In a "worst case scenario" the authority estimates that queuing time will be 30 minutes.

"The message to passengers is to turn up at least 90 minutes before your flight, to keep hand luggage to one item and to remember not to carry sharp objects in your hand luggage," a spokeswoman said. She said they had extra customers service staff on the ground who would be able to guide passengers to their check-in area and deal with queries. A spokeswoman for Shannon Airport said 34,000 people would pass through the airport over the weekend, an increase of 16pc on the same period last year.

Iarnrod Eireann is expecting over 180,000 people to travel on its inter-city services over the long weekend. A spokesman for the company said there would be extra trains at peak times and intending passengers should check with their local station, the talking timetable or on www.irishrail.ie, to check times as there were a number of changes to the timetable in place.

Due to ongoing Dart upgrade work in Dublin, the line between Pearse and Howth would be closed today, tomorrow and on Monday. Services to Maynooth, Sligo and Belfast are also affected by works.

Bus Eireann also expects to carry some 180,000 passengers on long-distance and provincial bus services throughout the country over the weekend and including Tuesday.

Normal timetables will operate on all routes over the weekend with extra buses provided on long-distance services.

Kathy Donaghy

Victor

Doh!

http://www.rte.ie/news/2005/0430/airport.html

Flights delayed due to security checks

30 April 2005 18:57
Aer Lingus and Ryanair have said that 30 of their flights departing from Dublin airport this morning were delayed following long queues at security checks in the airport.

Aer Lingus said all 20 of its morning flights were delayed for up to 30 minutes.

Ryanair have said that 10 of their flights were delayed and a number of their passengers missed flights.



The delays following queues of up to an hour and a half to get through security checks during the airport's busiest period between 5am and 7am this morning.

Dublin Airport Authority has said that queueing times for security checks in the airport are averaging 30 minutes this afternoon and are gradually easing.

However, they said they expect the delays to continue throughout the bank holiday weekend.

They are advising passengers to arrive at least 90 minutes before their flight, to take just one piece of hand luggage onto the plane and to remove any sharp objects.

antoinolachtnai

Most of the problems at Dublin Airport are of the DAA's making. They could vastly improve the capacity of the airport with simple changes.

There are major delays in the arrivals hall and this is causing queues to tailback through customs into the baggage hall. At the same time, there are thousands of people standing around waiting to meet passengers, and this congests the arrivals hall.

This could be easily remedied with simple changes.

DAA seems to benefit from all this mayhem. The unnecessarily large number of people in the airport increases the value of concessions and increases the parking revenue.

How can the government allow this to go on?

(Something I wrote about this - http://www.eire.com/blogarchives/000207.html).

a.