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Dublin Live
Dublin Live
National
Amy Donohoe & Cormac O'Shea

Dublin Airport security queues stretching outside terminal was 'plan to filter passengers'

Images of 'problematic' queues outside Dublin Airport terminal one this morning gave many the impression that more travel chaos was unfolding as Easter holidays started.

Queues outside Terminal One were shared on Twitter this morning as holiday hopefuls stood in a lengthy line as early as 4:00am.

RTE football correspondent Tony O’Donoghue couldn’t believe the scenes this morning, tweeting: “Sweet Jesus it’s four o'clock in the morning” alongside his own picture of the crowded scenes once he got indoors.

Read More: Ireland Covid news: Seven-day isolation rule could be reduced

Someone else tweeted: “Jesus this has to be a national embarrassment at this stage. That is disgraceful. The whole hierarchy at the daa needs to go for scenes like this.”

A third added: “At least you are inside, you should see the queue outside the door, and it ain't moving.”

Another said: “This is centralisation for you. In the meantime Shannon Airport is empty.”

A final said: “The problem is everyone is coming earlier than is necessary”.

But the airport eased flight missing fears on Twitter as they told passengers that they had planned to filter people in this manner to ease early queues.

Dublin Airport tweeted: “We are currently filtering passengers into the terminal buildings in an orderly manner to join check in and security queues which are moving.

“We thank passengers for their cooperation and patience at this extremely busy time of the morning in advance of the first wave of departures.”

Dublin Airport dominated news on Friday after passengers reported "crazy" queues, with one describing the scenes as "carnage" and akin to "a cattle mart".

A spokesperson for the daa said the "significant queues" in both Terminals at Dublin Airport in the early hours of Friday morning were particularly bad between 2.30am and 4.30am.

Graeme McQueen, Media Relations Manager at daa, said this was mainly the result of "a large number of passengers arriving earlier than expected ahead of flights later in the morning".

At its peak, it took some passengers up to 70 minutes to pass through security but "queue times reduced considerably once additional security lanes were opened up, as scheduled, in both terminals", he added.

Dublin Airport is warning people travelling over Easter to arrive at the airport "a minimum of three and a half hours prior to their departure time".

"As the number of passengers travelling through Dublin Airport continues to increase over the coming period, daa continues to refine and adapt its security screening operation with the aim of ensuring that we get all passengers through security in plenty of time to make their flight," Mr McQueen said.

Read More: Dublin Airport bosses blame latest queue chaos on passengers turning up too early

Read More: Dublin Airport footage shows massive 3am queues resulting in passenger chaos

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