SHOCK has been voiced by Senator Timmy Dooley (FF) that senior management at Dublin Airport have not resigned amid ongoing chaos with delays for passengers.
Passengers have missed flights from Dublin Airport given the inordinate delays experienced in security screenings as they attempt to board their planes on time.
In the United Kingdom, Karen Smart, the managing director of Manchester Airport, resigned with immediate effect hours after the city’s mayor said that the police could be drafted in to help sort the turmoil, similar to what is ongoing in Dublin. The airport has been blighted with huge queues for weeks, although the disruption increased in recent days as passenger numbers surged to pre-pandemic levels after all Covid-19 restrictions were lifted.
Manchester passengers branded the business a “total disgrace” as they waited for hours to reach security. Queues snaked outside the terminal at the height of the morning chaos, while holidaymakers with “fast track” access complained of 90-minute waits.
Senator Timmy Dooley has expressed amazement that there haven’t been resignations of senior management at Dublin Airport following deplorable delays for passengers. “For the main airport in this state to be advising customers to arrive up to 4 hours before a flight is an appalling indictment on the management at Dublin Airport.
“Dublin Airport management has found themselves in this situation as a result of predatory practices where they have attracted low-cost airlines and lowered standing charges in order to hoover up all the competition at the expense of other airports such as Shannon. Predatory practices at Dublin Airport have left them dominating the entire sector while airports like Shannon wither on the vine,” he stated.
He called for a legislative basis to be introduced so that balanced regional developments aids the likes of Shannon Airport. “Dublin Airport let people go on voluntary redundancies during the pandemic to better their own capital position and now the fruits of their poor decisions have come to bear. As a matter of urgency, we need to establish a legislative basis for managing our aviation sector in order to ensure regional development through airports like Shannon. The deplorable delays we are seeing in Dublin Airport will have a major negative impact on our tourism sector unless we ensure a regional balance to our aviation sector.”
