Recommended check-in times at Dublin Airport reduced as DAA says issue of queues has eased

The DAA has advised Dublin Airport passengers can now arrive two hours before a short-haul flight and three hours before a long-haul flight as queue times ease.

The authority said passengers checking in a bag should allow additional time of up to an hour.

The issues, which were behind long delays at Dublin Airport over the course of the spring and early summer, appear to have been resolved with the Defence Forces - which were on standby in the event of a Covid outbreak among airport security staff - being stood down, according to the DAA, the authority which manages the airport.

At its worst, passengers faced delays of up to four hours as they attempted to pass through security with more than 1,000 passengers missing flights on a single day as a result of the staffing crisis.

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The chaos prompted the DAA to extend the time frame that passengers were advised to arrive at the airport before a flight’s departure from the normal two hours.

However, it has now said the situation has improved significantly and “as a result, we are now advising intending passengers to arrive two hours in advance for a short-haul flight, and three hours for a long-haul flight.”

Passengers checking in a bag should allow additional time of up to an hour. It said the changes to passenger advice have been agreed in consultation with airlines.

According to a spokesman, the advice has remained under “constant review throughout the busy summer months to ensure passengers made their flights and to avoid the need to reduce flights at Dublin Airport, a move that has been necessary at many other international airports.

He said the continued reduction in security processing times “should provide increased reassurance to all those travelling over the coming weeks”.

“During July — Dublin Airport’s busiest month in three years — over 3 million passengers flew in and out of the airport. 99 per cent of all passengers passed through security in under 45 minutes, while 90 per cent of passengers queued for 30 minutes or less,” said the DAA chief executive Dalton Philips. “In the first two weeks of August, virtually all passengers were through security screening in 30 minutes or less.”

He said the improved performance “is the result of a continued bolstering of the security screening operation at Dublin Airport, with a concerted and ongoing recruitment drive to bring staffing levels back to 2019 levels.”