AIRPORT FALLOUT:THE SIGHT of under-occupied handling staff at the check-in desks in Dublin airport is a rare thing. But that's how things were yesterday as almost every flight in and out of the airport was grounded due to the volcanic ash cloud.
Although the Irish Aviation Authority had officially opened Irish airspace by mid-morning, the huge overhead information panels signalled dozens of cancellations because airspace in Britain and most of Europe was still restricted.
In the departures area, snaking queues for information desks (and for the few flights that were checking in passengers) were orderly. Passengers were bemused, tired and probably stressed. But there was no sign of them taking it out on any one else.
One Ryanair staff member dealing with questions from a man holding a print-out of his cancelled flight details said customers had been patient.
But then, many people whose flights were cancelled had heeded the strong advice from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and the airlines that they should not travel to the airport at all without checking first.
The destinations of the cancelled departing flights included Cork, Carcassonne, Frankfurt, London Stansted, London Gatwick, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Zurich, Paris, Geneva, Birmingham, Eindhoven, Hamburg, Billund, New York, Toulouse.
DAA spokeswoman Siobhán Moore said some 384 flights had been cancelled on Thursday, affecting approximately 45,000 passengers. Yesterday, some 462 flights were due to arrive and depart but by 5pm about 450 had been cancelled.
“We are talking about in the region of 55,000 passengers travelling today. So you could be talking about the guts of 90,000 to 100,000 passengers.” Ms Moore said passengers should not travel to the airport if their flights had been cancelled. She noted some passengers were experiencing difficulty getting through to airlines by phone or on the web, but she appealed for patience.
“We’ve had lots of staff on duty and we’re experts in managing queues at this stage. So we had very orderly queue arrangements yesterday and it worked very well for us. Passengers were very calm. Frustrated, but they can’t control it. It’s a safety issue and there’s not even a question to be asked about that.” Ms Moore said things were “quite strange, quite eerie in the sense that business is not as it normally is here”.
The airport opened free Wi-Fi access to assist passengers trying to rebook flights or make alternative travel arrangements.
At the Dublin Tourism desk in the arrivals hall, one staff member said there had been many queries from tourists trying to book accommodation in Dublin because they were stranded. “Some people don’t have flights until Monday or Wednesday. That’s mainly what we’ve been doing yesterday and today.” A lot of people were also inquiring about ferry options but the indications from the ferry companies were that these were heavily booked. The Bus Éireann desk hadn’t sold many tickets by yesterday afternoon but was dealing with queries from tourists who were “just tired and trying to get home any way they can”, said one staff member.
Ground handling staff at some of the check-in desks indicated their working hours over the next few days will depend on whether flights return to normal.
The cost of the disruption is difficult to estimate but for airlines, airports, staff and the tourism industry, it is likely to be huge.
Ryanair said yesterday it was focusing on providing information to passengers and had not yet counted the cost to its business. Stephen McNamara of Ryanair told RTÉ's News at Onethat although it budgeted for certain disruptions during the year, this was a completely new situation.