One travel expert says people looking to avoid the heavy queues at Dublin Airport should book a flight outside of its peak times.
Pol Ó Conghaile, travel editor with the Irish Independent, was speaking after passengers were forced to stand in line outside the airport while waiting to go through security over the weekend.
The queue to get in to Dublin airport at 4.54 this morning. While it looks like an absolute shit show, we were in and through security in just under an hour. Super organisation by the the staff this morning! #DublinAirport pic.twitter.com/AgjxYUnuLa
— keith bunyan (@keithbunyan) April 9, 2022
But Pol told Pat Kenny there are ways around this.
"Normally what we're told is that peak time in Terminal 1 is from about 5am to 10am.
"It's similar in T2, although not usually as bad, but it can go on until up about noon - and that's because of the transatlantic flights.
"But at this stage all weekends, and the whole Easter holiday period that's coming up ahead of us, the queues are going to be an issue as well.
"I note that Dublin Airport's current advice is that you should show up no more than three hours and a half hours before your flight."
Pol says previous advice, telling people to turn up even earlier, seems to have backfired.
"I think what they were hoping, I suppose, is that if everybody did that - at three and a hour hours.
"But it doesn't allow for the human condition, of course.
"So that if you're a nervous flier, or you just want to make sure you make your flight, and you say 'Look they're saying three and a hour hours' you might well give it four or more.
"And the result is that you have even more people waiting.
"Hence the development this weekend: that was the first time we've seen pictures and we've seen people queuing outside the Terminal 1 building.
"The way they're describing that is that they're managing the flow of people as they come in".
Pol says the waiting times are slightly better now.
"This morning it seemed to be about 45 minutes to about an hour and 10 minutes to get from when you pitched up outside the terminal to get airside.
"People seem to report on one hand many people frustrated, giving out - shambles, chaos - but there are a lot of people also saying that the queues are moving."
When to fly?
His advice to people: "If you haven't booked a flight, and if you are at all flexible and you can book outside of those peak times I mentioned, that's one way you can at least skip the worst of this situation".
And he says people should also be weary of when check-in desks open.
"You could also argue that they should have foreseen this.
"It is also the case that not all of the airline check-in desks open with the same intervals.
"We know that Ryanair has changed its to open three and a hour hours before - so that's another thing passengers need to check before they rock up significantly earlier.
"And there are queues...on the other side for coffees, for food, for things like that because you're getting such a volume of people showing up at the same time during these rush hour periods."
