Dublin Airport Authority have stood down the majority of contingency measures that were in place at the airport over the summer due to a stabilisation of security queues.
According to daa, no passengers faced any delays at security from early June onwards due to the successful implementation of various contingency measures. They added that virtually all passengers who departed from the airport during August and September passed through security in under 30 minutes.
At the beginning of summer, departures road at Terminal 1 was shut off to traffic. There were also two tented areas set up outside Terminal 1 to provide shelter to any passengers queueing for security at busy times.
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However, daa reopened Departures Road to traffic on Thursday morning following the four month closure. Scheduled plans to resurface the road were brought forward and completed to prevent the road being shut again in the coming weeks.
Bus drop-off and pick-ups have resumed from Terminal 1, daa confirmed this morning. One of the two tented areas outside the Terminal has also been taken down, while the second was narrowed from nine metres to six metres and will remain as a contingency for passengers queuing to check-in with their airline.
A daa spokesman said the current travel advice to arrive two hours before a short-haul flight and three hours prior to a long-haul flight, with an additional hour added if checking in a bag, remains in place but is under review.
Interim CEO of daa, Catherine Gubbins said the company's focus now is on "restoring the overall passenger experience". She said: "Significant pent-up demand for travel following the easing of global Covid-19 restrictions saw passenger numbers at Dublin Airport increase by almost 400% during the first nine months of 2022 to just under 21 million.
"This recovery in activity provided a welcome boost to leisure and business travel but also presented significant challenges as the sector sought to rebuild following the Covid pandemic which decimated the aviation industry for two years. Through the phenomenal efforts of our staff, daa, in partnership with our airline and aviation partners, has successfully introduced measures to address operational issues which arose as a result of the strong return in activity.
"This was without having to resort to significant cuts in flights and capacity at Dublin Airport this summer. We are pleased that security screening through the peak holiday months of June, July, August and September saw ongoing improvement and our key focus now is on restoring the overall passenger experience and progressing the capital investment required to meet Ireland’s connectivity and sustainability needs out to 2030.
"Passenger numbers in the second quarter of the year (April to June 2022) were just 13% lower than the same period in 2019, versus 36% lower in the first quarter (January to March 2022) compared with 2019. The current outlook for quarter three, which represents our peak traffic period, is strong with expected passenger numbers nearing 2019 pre-Covid levels."
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