Dublin Airport New Runway/Infrastructure.

Zero

Great pic. EI-ALA, B720-048 "St Patrick/Padraig"

No labour shortage in those days, six lads to do the refuelling - not counting the chap with the fire extinguisher that looks like it was borrowed from someone's office

A perusal through this thread would tell you the answer to that.

I try to find the relevant post(s)

have a goo at flight radar in the next two minutes and you will see a BA, Aerlingus and Ryanair take off for the first flights of the morning from the new runway.

Follow-me vehicles are common at airports around the world and in Dublin are used in a variety of circumstances, including where taxiway tolerances are tight. What's so surprising about non-local carriers getting such a service? Individual pilots may not be frequent visitors and indeed might never have been here before.

Indeed it really is embarrassing. Cul-de-sacs everywhere and a shortage of stands at peak times combined with a poor taxiway layout means the apron in DUB is surely the worst, not just one of the worst. In fairness to ATC it is a very challenging airport for them to control so I can understand it may seem that ATC is not the best but if they were given a half decent airport in the first place I'm sure they'd be just as good as anywhere else.

I'm sure its been discussed multiple times here before but T2 should never have been shoe-horned into the corner its in. It should have been built west of the tower where unimpeded access could have been assured. The 2 parallel taxiways at the end of the pier are too narrow for 2 wide bodies or a wide body + narrow body to pass each other so you have a total bottleneck there with TA arrivals and departures coming in and out meaning narrow bodies have to wait; along with the departures queuing for 28L which makes it a total mess. Add to this some over-cautious ATC rules about aircraft passing behind another which is waiting for departure at 28L and you have surely the worst pinch point at any airport in Europe. There is a plan for these taxiways (Z and B) to be widened to allow 2 wide bodies to pass each other but with the terminal barely 10 years old, how on earth this problem wasn't foreseen (or if it was, why this situation was allowed to be) and addressed during construction is beyond me. Now they have to go digging up that whole area surely at much inflated cost now versus that of having done it 10 years ago. Hopefully next summer when 28R is open all day for departures it will help reduce the queuing down there and relieve the problem a bit but its just poor planning which has knock-on effects such as delays to arrivals and departures as well as the environmental impact of planes sitting going nowhere burning fuel which just doesn't happen at other well-designed airports.

I understand it relates to N ref 757(s) taking taxiway Z in error some time ago, it is not rated for those aircraft. IAA/DAA respond by introducing another mitigation/procedure and DUB just gets even more complex.

Fly into several German airports any you will often be told to swap from taxi way line to another tactically where there are multiple ones. A world away from DUB.

Wow you know your stuff, makes complete sense 💯

Actually we didn't just flew a strange approach.

Balbriggan should be where you crossed the coast on that approach.

I wonder if there is any plan to get back to normal drop off areas? Currently, "alternative arrangements" serve no purpose if ever did.

They served a huge purpose. It allowed the departure road to close to allow for safe passenger queuing in overflow situations. It is still there as a contingency and safety measure.

There was last week when Aer Lingus had their IT failure.

But I agree in principle, the road network at the Terminals should be returned now to the purposes for which they were intended.

And any notion of DAA daring to charge for private car drop offs also needs to be slapped down for good.

Would anyone know why planes are passing so low (4-5K )over Ashbourne when using the new runway and taking such a strange route , they seem to take a very tight turn right shortly after lift off and follow the N2. Where as when using the old runway they would normally take off over kilshane cross/ kilbride/ dunboyne or ratoath then Ashbourne which by then normally they are up around 8-10K.