Daa CEO Dalton Phillips also ruled out using the army in Dublin Airport to assist with security this week.
Dublin Airport has denied claims that 1,000 people were made redundant at the airport during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The statement came in response to a segment on The Tonight Show on Virgin Media One on Monday (4 July).
Contrary to comments made on #TonightVMTV daa did not make 1000 people redundant during Covid-19. daa introduced a voluntary severance scheme during Summer ,20 at the height of the Covid-19 crisis as part of cost-cutting measures to secure the continued viability of the company.
— Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) July 4, 2022
“Contrary to comments made on #TonightVMTV, daa did not make 1000 people redundant during Covid-19,” Dublin Airport tweeted.
“Daa introduced a voluntary severance scheme during Summer 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 crisis as part of cost-cutting measures to secure the continued viability of the company.”
According to the airport, more than 5,000 people applied for new jobs as security officers in permanent positions.
93% of passengers in June were able to pass through security in under 45 minutes.
The current advice for passengers is to arrive at the airport 2.5 hours prior to a short-haul flight and 3.5 hours before a long-haul flight, with an additional hour for baggage drop where required.
DAA CEO Dalton Phillips appeared on the programme on Monday, where he ruled out requiring the army to assist with security this week.
“We had make significant progress in the past six weeks in terms of our overall security programme at Dublin Airport,” Phillips said.
“Covid and that fifth wave is out there, and we felt that it would be prudent to engage with the defence forces and say, look, in the unlikely event that we had a Covid outbreak in our security operations, and I’m talking about more than 20% of people impacted and affected by Covid, that we would like to be able to turn to the defence forces.
“We don’t have that level of Covid, not anywhere near it, but I think it’s prudent.”
88 flights out of Dublin Airport have been cancelled in the last five days, with Covid outbreaks in airline staff among the chief factors in the cancellations.
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