A holding area plan is unlikely to be used, daa’s Dalton Phillips said.
People travelling through Dublin Airport over the Bank Holiday weekend could face one-hour security queues.
Dalton Philips, the chief executive of Dublin Airport Authority, told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport on Wednesday that 250,000 people are expected through the airport this weekend.
He said that at peak times, the wait for security “could be up to an hour”, but he could not guarantee it would not be more than an hour should unforeseen circumstances arise.
The airport chief explained that, last Sunday, the airport rostered in 200 security officers and 24 team supervisors and co-ordinators to meet the demands of serving 50,000 departing passengers.
“This would have allowed us to open sufficient security lanes and X-ray machines to cater for the first-wave of departing passengers,” he said.
“However, on that day, we were 37 officers down.”
Philips stated that 17 of these officers were new recruits who, due to an anomaly that has since been resolved, were on the airport’s rostering system despite not completing the necessary training.
On top of this, 20 officers were absent from work on the day.
“Many of the 37 staff have particular clearances and certifications required to open and operate a lane and so they can’t be really substituted by other daa staff,” the chief added.
As it stands, passengers at Dublin Airport are being advised to arrive up to 2.5 hours before short-haul flights to Europe and the UK and up to 3.5 hours before long-haul flights.
In line with this, the DAA says that, during times when terminals become busy, it will be triaging access to them.
This means the airport will only be allowing passengers that have flights leaving within 2.5 hours to short-haul destinations and 3.5 hours for long-haul destinations into the departures level.
Meanwhile, passengers who arrive at Dublin Airport too early for their flights will be asked to wait in a holding area, with the trailling of this system to take place over the June Bank Holiday weekend.
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