Dublin Airport New Runway/Infrastructure.

I'm through the airport quite frequently and have noticied a marked improvement on most services etc. granted a lot more to do but it's a busy facility and that adds to the planning and timelines to carry out any type of project. If they are allowed to complete the list of projetcs they have in the pipeline it will further enhance the facilities and overall experience.

One other good thing about Dublin Airport (which a lot of Irish people don't appreciate) is that the prices are actually quite good for an airport. €1 water and the WH Smith meal deals are good value. Not to mention chains like Boots and Butlers that charge (as far as I can tell) the same prices as their regular non-airport shops. Even the restaurants like Marqette aren't THAT bad for airport prices.

Apart from the UK the same can't be said for airports in any other Western European country in my experience.

DUB is a decent airport. The main issues are the shortage of stands and poor public transport links.

Zürich is probably the best large airport in Europe IMO.

Pros

• Excellent public transport links (airport to city in 10 minutes)
• Very efficient security (1 hour is plenty of time to arrive in advance if flying with hand luggage only)
• No long walks
• Not too many remote stands
• Good lounges

Cons

• Outrageous prices (coffee over €7) - I usually go to a lounge if I'm there for longer as it's better value. On the plus side there is a great Migros supermarket landside.

Milan Linate, Zagreb and Madrid (T4 at least) are also very good airports.

My 100ish figure is individual flights rather than journeys (so inflated a lot by 2/3 leg journeys), and includes both pleasure and work, so its possibly not as bad as that figure initially sounds. But maybe thats just my subconscious effort to make myself feel better either!

Deicing is a pretty rare issue winter 2022/23 aside I think, or else I just don't remember it previously from other winters (outside of exceptional snow episodes like March 2018). But it definitely should be improved upon going forwards if the airlines can be convinced to get over their reluctance.

My biggest positive for DUB is how fast the whole airport process is. Its possible to get from stepping out of a taxi to at your gate within 15 minutes a lot of the time, rarely above 30min outside of absolute peak travel periods. There aren't many 30mn+ pax airports around the world you can say that for.

It's good to see many people talking of positive experiences as passengers going through DUB. I suppose my point was more that there are aspects of the overall airport operation that I would say are not up to a high standard which is why I disagreed with you. Yes some of these problems are not entirely the fault of daa and so it might be unfair to make a sweeping statement that the airport is ‘not well run’. My issues with the airport are mainly of the infrastructure around it but I am glad to see that despite this your passenger experience inside the terminals is still good. However it may be just the days I have passed through but I still find the terminals to be more often dirty than clean (tables at restaurants seldom cleaned properly, toilets are almost always in a very poor state compared to airports like FCO, LHR, CPH and I was surprised at how poorly kept they were in the 51st and Green lounge recently). 

When it comes to infrastructure there are many issues but there is a chronic lack of stands with arrivals still frequently holding out on the taxiways waiting for a stand. We all know DUB has an inefficient taxiway/apron layout with bottlenecks and cul de sacs in multiple places as well as daft restrictions on taxiways that you just don’t see elsewhere and all this slows things down and prolongs taxi times. For example I think I have mentioned this before but there was poor forward planning when T2 was built in that the taxiways at the end of the pier of T2 are not wide enough for 2 widebodies to taxi past each other and now there is a plan for major works in this area to widen them which should and could have been done when the terminal was built (not all that long ago) presumably at a fraction of the cost of doing it now. Most other airports tend to invest properly at the time of construction and do it right from the beginning rather than constantly tinkering with their layouts resulting in ongoing taxiway closures and disruption.

The new runway is still not open for the morning first wave which is the busiest time of the day, resulting in long taxi times for departure because there is a steady stream of arrivals onto the one runway at the same time. Granted this may not be a daa issue and more of an ATC issue but it still impacts on the running of the airport as a whole and again makes me lean away from the idea that DUB is a well-run airport. I can only imagine what the early morning arrivals from Europe must think when they have to hold on the way into DUB, burning extra fuel, when there’s only one runway open and a perfectly shiny new runway sitting unused until after the morning rush. In this age of supposed efforts to cut down on carbon emissions, it baffles me why this hasn't been addressed yet.

And then you could spend hours debating the public transport issues and glacial pace of any kind of rail link to the city centre. Again not entirely the daa’s fault but still does not give a good impression in my opinion to our visitors.

Maybe I'm being overly critical and I guess the average passenger might not notice these things but thats why I thought you were being sarcastic!😄

Have to echo the sentiments above. For an airport of its size, with a predominance on smaller single-aisle aircraft, so a considerable number of aircraft movements and all that it entails, DUB is actually very well run. I normally don't eat at the airport and don't look in detail at the food options but last week had time to. The food prices are very reflective of city centre and nothing as expensive as equivalent airports in Europe. Marquette have the hot meal for €15.95, same price as a carvery; you can get a sandwich, crisps, fruit and drink for €10 and add a glass of wine for €5. The 'street food' area has burrito bowls for less than €12 - all very similar to downtown prices. Security was fast and the staff are in general very helpful and pleasent. On return, we deplaned around 112 gate, usual walk to passport control, no queue at passport control and my bag was already on the carousel when I got to the hall. Literally 15 mins from steps of plane to exiting the airport. I do feel that the airport is very cramped at times and needs more space for shopping and more food outlets, however, one of the beauties for DUB is the short walks and minimal bus-gates so the thing is to try get the happy medium.

There is a large vehicle checkpoint between T2 and the south gates so building a corridor linking the two just isn’t feasible considering the south gates aren’t planned to be a permanent fixture.

I think the domestic arrivals issue is a very small one in the scheme of things, with just two routes and at most a few hundred passengers a day. I would rather see the more major deficiencies addressed.

It's really great to see the place busy again. I remember flying during COVID two or so years ago and seeing everything empty.

What strikes me about Dublin Airport these days:

• Very crowded environment in most parts of the airport. No easy fix for that.
• Filthy/broken toilets, especially Pier D. This has been a complaint for years.
• Terrible public transport. The old Aircoach + Dublin Bus 746/747/748 worked reasonably well, but I find the current Dublin express service a joke for an airport of the size.
• A proper bus station should be built, not some piece of concrete in the corner of a car park.

The domestic/CTA arrivals coming through passport control is a relative non-issue now that passport control seems to be well staffed and doesn't cause delay.

One of the main hurdles was that it used to be staffed by Gardai so there was a resistance to having 'excess' staff allocated to it as there is always a push to have trained garda doing the visible 'on the street' roles. It was changed over to INIS in 2015 (roughly) which effectively 'civillianised' it so makes it easier to staff up.

I have experienced this also, though in net terms it didn't add a whole lot of time to the arrival process. I have no insight into the operational aspects, so simply ascribing it to EI not wanting to reposition aircraft may not be correct, or at least not the full story. I would imagine that given the short overnight turnaround period nowadays, assigning personnel to the necessary checks on aircraft, cleaning etc. is the priority. Shuffling aircraft around essentially the same piece of ramp may be regarded as not the best use of scarce resources. There are probably aircraft that need to be towed to and from the hangars at night too - a more time-consuming process for the towing personnel too.

Thankfully they seem to be sending flights that arrive earlier there now. I used to hate arriving in at 1 or 2 in the morning and ending up there. They also deplane straight on to busses now instead of making you walk into the building. One thing Aer Lingus never seems to use a second set of steps since Covid, slows the whole process down.

Planning was for 7 years. DAA will have to get an extension soon unless this was changed a few years ago.

They will go once Pier5 is constructed.

I think MUC is comparable when it comes to number of pax and for sure it is much better experience. Spacious, clean, a lot of places to sit, eat in, smoke, etc. There is frequent bus to the stand, especially on DUB route but overall MUC is excellent.