Dublin Airport is bracing for 243,000 passengers over the next five days between today and Monday.
Passengers have been issued fresh advice from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in a bid to avoid chaotic queues witnessed last weekend.
CEO of DAA, Dalton Philips said there will be increased security staff and has asked passengers to arrive at specific times for their flight.
He said: “Our advice to passengers due to fly out of Dublin Airport over the coming period, is to arrive at the airport at least two and a half hours before the departure of short-haul flights to Europe and the UK and at least three and a half hours for long-haul flights.
“If passengers are checking in bags, we advise them to add up to an additional hour for bag drop or check-in.”
Passengers that arrive too early for their flights will be asked to wait in a passenger holding area.
Access to the appropriate terminals will be controlled, and will require the presentation of documentation indicating the time of flight such as a booking confirmation or boarding card.
According to figures from the DAA, the two busiest days to fly out of Dublin Airport are tomorrow, Friday June 3 and on Monday, June 4.
Figures show 46,000 passengers are expected to fly out of Dublin Airport today, 52,000 on Friday, 45,000 on Saturday, 48,000 on Sunday and 52,000 on Monday.
Holidaymakers may have to queue up to an hour outside in the rain at Dublin Airport this weekend, Mr Philips has admitted.
And he could not give a guarantee that more people could potentially miss their flight.
He embarrassingly revealed that passengers may have to wait in holding areas outside at the airport’s short-term car parks despite trying to convince TDs that he’s “confident” the same chaotic scenes won’t occur again this June Bank Holiday.
Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell pointed out it’s forecasted to rain on Friday morning and in patches over the weekend.
He asked Mr Philips if people will be outside in the rain, Mr Philips said: “Potentially.
“As I said, we want to get covered areas so that doesn't happen.”
Mr O’Donnell told Mr Phillips that these revelations were “dreadful.”
When pressed further on how long people can expect to be queueing, Mr Philips said: “There will be periods where queueing could be an hour.
“At certain peak points there may be queuing outside.”
But earlier during the hearing while revealing his plan to TDs, Mr Philips said he didn’t expect to have holding areas in place by this weekend.
He said: “We don’t anticipate it, but we have to be prepared for it.
“We would be using some of the outside queuing areas that we've got now which are in place and we would also use some of our short-term car parks both in terminal one and terminal two that are adjacent and that are covered and can provide a safe infrastructure in the event that we need to triage.
“We don't expect to have that in place this weekend but as the number spills over the summer, we want to have a contingency [plan] and should we be faced with a situation.
“So this weekend, our plan for this weekend is that people will not have to be outside for any length of time.”
When asked repeatedly by Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell if he could give a guarantee that passengers will not miss a flight again, Mr Philips said: “If passengers will heed the two and half hours, I’m confident with our plans.
“We’re in a very difficult situation.
“I am giving them a high level of confidence.”
Mr Philips said additional security staff from Cork Airport will be drafted in to help at Dublin Airport this weekend.
They will be among more than 40 extra security screening staff that will be on duty to help with demand for flights.
