myguideTravel Blog

Dublin Airport Progress or regression?

December 13th, 2007

As someone who has travelled extensively and passed through Dublin Airport a few times a month over the last few years, I certainly welcomed the announcements of the development of Pier D and of the second terminal. While the extension of the baggage hall a few years ago took some pressure off for arriving passengers, here was a real opportunity to solve some of the problems caused by the over-crowding that has been so prevalent for so many years. That’s the theory.

In October of this year, the Dublin Airport Authority acclaimed the opening of Pier D
Finally some progress? I would have thought so.
In my new role with myguideTravel, based in West Cork, I have fewer occasions to use Dublin Airport however the story of one of our valued Guests on Tuesday last, December 11th makes me think that some things never change:

Our Guest, a pensioner on medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol management, is in the habit of arriving at airports with ample time to catch her flight. Tuesday was no different.
She was travelling on flight FR9847. She proceeded to her gate in area ‘A’ of Dublin Airport as was directed by both the check-in agent & the departure screens and she then sat near the correct gate to wait (the screen at the gate also displayed her flight as being next)

As the time to board approached she suddenly noticed that the screen no longer displayed her flight and nobody could tell her where she should now go. She proceeded to find a screen listing all area A departures and again her flight was not displayed. She then proceeded upstairs and found an information desk where they informed her that her flight was now departing from Pier D. Some of you probably know the layout of Dublin Airport but I will still point out that this is a very long walk; -Yet the story worsens:

She was not allowed to proceed to pier D without first going downstairs to leave the departures area, pass through passport control, exit through the baggage hall, pass through the customs hall, go back upstairs to the departures area, queue at security to get back into the Airside departures area and then embark on the very long journey to your new state-of-the-art Pier D. Perhaps her stress levels and heart rate would not have been so elevated except that gate “closing” was displayed for most of this journey. I remind you that this is despite being at the airport over 2 hours before her flight.

While the Airport Authority would probably blame the airline, I will not entertain that excuse as gates are assigned by the airport and I can point out some very simple displays of competence, any of which could avoid old age pensioners and also more able-bodied passengers being treated in this way;
The first is for the DAA to implement a simple policy that late gate changes do not involve a change of “boarding area”
The second is to ensure that departing passengers can transfer between Area A and other departure areas. There have been millions of Euros pumped into Dublin Airport over the past few years and yet this simple anomaly has not been addressed.It is currently ok for arriving passengers in Area A to mingle with departing passengers but it is not ok for those same passengers to mingle with other departing passengers.

The Airport Authority in Dublin is at risk of this incompetence resulting in health related problems if they continue to allow passengers, both young and old, to be subjected to these levels of completely unnecessary stress.

One of my roles at present is promoting Ireland as a tourist destination. This is a task that has many positive stories to support the cause but when a state owned institution treats its customers with contempt it takes some of the gloss off. I trust the DAA will get it right one day.
I notice that their mission statement at the DAA is “To deliver a quality Airport travel experience to the best international standards”, -there’s still some work to do!

Entry Filed under: Airports, Flights, Ireland, Travel