A passenger has told how he bought an airline ticket to get his lost luggage back at Dublin Airport.
Engineer Dermot Lennon, from Castleblaney in Co Monaghan, had been left without his bags after returning from a family trip to Brisbane, Australia on June 27. He described “chaotic” scenes at Dublin Airport on Monday July 4 when he arrived to claim his bags.
He said: “They were taking groups of six through security. By 7.30 that evening only 13 people had got through to baggage reclaim. They had to go through security, which took about 30 minutes to an hour and then go and find their bags.”
Read more: Representatives want soldiers at Dublin Airport to be paid €104 extra
Mr Lennon left without his bag but returned on Tuesday and bought a flight ticket to get through security. He told RTE’s Claire Byrne Show: “I got the cheapest ticket I could, which was a flight to Glasgow for €18 courtesy of Ryanair, and went through security and on to the baggage reclaim area.
“The place was just littered with bags, there were thousands of bags all over the place. I saw some of them were from June 15, one was from June 2. I found my bag and I left.”
Dublin Airport Authority has acknowledged there is an issue with baggage return at the airport. It said: “DAA, as the airport management company, does not handle any baggage for any airline at Dublin Airport.
“This is undertaken by the airline directly or by their third-party ground handling company. Airline ground handling companies around the globe have struggled to meet the rapid increase in demand for international air travel due to recruitment issues.”
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