[Article] Air passengers face long immigration queues

Victor

I was slightly bemused recently at some American being indignant having to queue (the queue being about six people long) while Europeans were waved through almost non-chalently.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/8487391?view=Eircomnet

Air passengers face long immigration queues
From:ireland.com
Monday, 17th July, 2006

Hundreds of travellers faced lengthy queues to pass through immigration checks after landing at Dublin Airport today.

Fine Gael Transport spokeswoman, Olivia Mitchell, claimed passengers had been delayed at Garda immigration booths for up to 90 minutes.

"The two immigration booths available to EU and domestic passengers were simply unable to cope with demand today but it would seem this is not a new development and gardai on duty indicated that these kinds of delays were a regular occurrence," the TD said.

"Hundreds of people were forced to queue for immigration in intolerable and overheated conditions for over an hour and a half."

A spokeswoman for the Dublin Airport Authority said urgent discussions were taking place between airport managers and An Garda Siochana to rectify the delays at immigration.

"It is difficult as we don't have direct control of the area, An Garda Siochana manage and man the booths," she said. "It is becoming quite a difficulty for passengers."

However, the spokeswoman said she had not received any reports of a 90-minute wait for immigration. She said some passengers faced a wait of up to 20 to 30 minutes.

The immigration area was enlarged recently with an extra booth installed. But it was confirmed only two out of the four booths were being manned by gardai today.

Ms Mitchell said it was intolerable to allow the situation to continue whether it arose from garda availability or from an inadequate number of immigration booths.

"It's not just uncomfortable and dangerous for hapless passengers; it undermines any ambition Dublin airport may have to become a hub in the future. A successful hub airport must be able to ensure the efficient throughput of passengers and make certain that nobody misses their onward flights," she said.

dam099

Victor wrote:

I was slightly bemused recently at some American being indignant having to queue (the queue being about six people long) while Europeans were waved through almost non-chalently.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/breaking/8487391?view=Eircomnet

He obviously never saw the queues for non-US citizens at many US Airports then, I've waited up to 2 hours at Miami and Ft. Lauderdale while US citizens walked by nonchalantly.

RuggieBear

90 minutes queues in Sydney, Australia as well for non nationals...just what you need after such a long journey.

Bluetonic

*Ahem*

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=51738746&postcount=68

Thought it was better to add it to where it had already been discussed.

therecklessone

Victor wrote:

I was slightly bemused recently at some American being indignant having to queue (the queue being about six people long) while Europeans were waved through almost non-chalently.

Now if we could just fingerprint and photograph them they might get some idea of what its like for us to visit their country...;)

mackerski

They could free up some capacity at "passport" control by doing what every other airport does and having free-travel-area arrivals bypass it, routing them instead past a reduced discretionary check that need not always be manned.

It makes my blood boil having to queue to get back into my own country when I'm arriving from the UK. I never produce ID unless asked for it, and that happened last week for the first time ever.

Dermot

peter1892

I've never had to endure a queue at immigration getting back into Dublin. The last time I travelled, the bloke in the booth didn't even look at my passport to see if it was an Irish/EU one...

On the other hand I've stood for over an hour at the US pre-immigration in Dublin airport, (and subsequently had my flight delayed for an hour) because there weren't enough staff on duty.

Queues at US airports...maybe 10 minutes at both LAX & SFO. It's about timing, in both of those cases there were a lot of staff on duty & not too many passengers waiting in line. In the case of my Dublin experience there were 4 or 5 full flights going out to the USA within an hour of each other & only 3 of the 6 booths were manned.

secret_squirrel

This happened to me before they added the extra booth. Grr 2 booths manned out of 3, at peak evening rush hour.

I assume this is from the A gates.

Its a little unfair blaming just the Guards (although they deserve a share) when it was DAA who added 6 or 8 new temporary gates using those portacabins.

Its blatently obvious that the escalator between the A gates and the Baggage hall was a choke point waiting to happen.

Having said that only having 2 booths manned out of 4 at a busy time is inescusable.

It would also help if DAA tried to condense the UK/Internal flights into 1 area where a more cursory check could be done as a previous poster mentioned. Its really annoying to come in from LHR into the B gates and get stuck behind a T/A flight thats just spilled 300 Yanks into immigration.

I would also note that the Booths are never fully manned at the B and C gates but they at least have enough booths to deal with the numbers of passengers coming through.

But lets face it the Guards arent exactly well known for their competence are they?

In other news there were 3 customs officers at the exit to the baggage hall on sunday night, I almost fainted from the shock.

therecklessone

secret_squirrel wrote:

Its a little unfair blaming just the Guards (although they deserve a share) when it was DAA who added 6 or 8 new temporary gates using those portacabins.

Debateable to what extent the new gates have exacerbated the existing delays, in the absence of extra contact stands you'd have passengers bussed to and from remote stands, they'd still be arriving @ the Pier A passport control at some point.

The problem might be relieved slightly by bussing passengers from remote stands through Piers B and C to spread the load slightly, but the economics may not work (how much use would there be for buses during the quieter periods?) and Ryanair would kick up a fuss about the extra workload involved.

A simple enough solution would be for the travelator corridor to/from Pier A to become one way for inbound passengers, allowing more space for passport booths and a dedicated channel for UK and internal flights (could be manned by DAA staff rather than Gardai, with access granted to anyone with the correct boarding pass like in most UK airports, Gardai could do spot checks if they wished). Outbound passengers could be routed via stairs/escalator to a ground floor corridor under the existing one, bypassing the inbound melee and emerging somewhere near the entrance to Duty Free. Make sense?

secret_squirrel

I think the bus idea makes a lot of sense, although agree the economics may be debatable.

Also the corridor idea (if a suitable one exists) also makes sense.

I wondered if putting the booths at the pier A end might make sense since there is more space to play with.

The downside for DAA it would probably mean loosing the corner of the duty free shop to make a corridor for departing pax.

lord lucan

customs officers on duty!!! in the last 12 years and with probably 60 returns through dublin i have only seen customs officers 3 times,amazing how everyone now walks through whatever channel they want as they're usually unmanned,only airport in the world i've ever seen this.:eek:

kona

had just got off a flight from new york last sat morning and all i have to say from the huge que i saw was entirely peoples own fault not customs. stupid ignorant(possibly dislexic) geriatrics and posers, strut into the hall and all head for both marked non-EU now the were irish in this que:eek: along with the yanks. i walked past straight through the EU booth no bother from the gate to baggage hall 5mins max.
this is the peoples stupidity, i hate when people blame their own stupidity on others, fuccking gobsh1tes

therecklessone

kona wrote:

had just got off a flight from new york last sat morning and all i have to say from the huge que i saw was entirely peoples own fault not customs. stupid ignorant(possibly dislexic) geriatrics and posers, strut into the hall and all head for both marked non-EU now the were irish in this que:eek: along with the yanks. i walked past straight through the EU booth no bother from the gate to baggage hall 5mins max.
this is the peoples stupidity, i hate when people blame their own stupidity on others, fuccking gobsh1tes

TBH, if you're going to be so harsh in your criticism of others, you might want to get your facts right. Customs do not run passport control, the GNIB does.

kona

therecklessone wrote:

TBH, if you're going to be so harsh in your criticism of others, you might want to get your facts right. Customs do not run passport control, the GNIB does.

whatever man, im pissed off at this countrys stupidity, new york is a much nicer place and i walked around manhattan no bother at night on my own even around the side streets of times square which are as dodgey as you get there . the people are easy to talk to and very nice, where as here you have junkies on the streets, and scum everywhere.
this country has taken a nose dive in the last 10years,politically and culturally look at the idiots on the road for fcuk sake.
in new york if sombody drops somthing and you pick it up they reply with 'thank you , sir'
do it on henry street you'll prob get ****ing stabbed or called a pr!ck.
im ****ing outa here once i get my degree off this government and by the way alot of my mates feel the same.

अधिनायक

Why are there two sets of Garda passport check booths, one in front of the other in pier A? I think they were both built in the last 12 months.

I faced long queues there for the first time recently (both EU and non-EU) maybe it's just the summer or are they checking more thoroughly?

Maybe the cops are on holiday or ringing in sick. Must be the most boring job on earth sitting in a box, picking on blacks all day. I've seen them playing computer games on their terminals. Every passenger they see has a pissed off look that says 'stop wasting my time, pig'.

Our man in Havana

Is there not a bypass lane at the B gates for UK flights? There was one there the last time I came from the UK.

MrPudding

Bond-007 wrote:

Is there not a bypass lane at the B gates for UK flights? There was one there the last time I came from the UK.

I don't think so. I have had to go past the booths twice now. First time was OK, second was a nightmare.

The queue was way back through the corridor and we had been there for 10 or 15 minutes before the someone appeared to man the "non-EU" booth.

Shambles TBH.

MrP

Our man in Havana

I don't see the reason of having passport/immigration checks on UK flights from within the common travel area. Was that not the whole idea of the CTA, no papers and no checks?

MrPudding

Bond-007 wrote:

I don't see the reason of having passport/immigration checks on UK flights from within the common travel area. Was that not the whole idea of the CTA, no papers and no checks?

Well I don't get checked in Luton, it is off the plane and straight through to the exit. Yet another example of the shambles that is Dublin Airport?

MrP

therecklessone

MrPudding wrote:

Well I don't get checked in Luton, it is off the plane and straight through to the exit. Yet another example of the shambles that is Dublin Airport?

MrP

Thats because you are delivered to a series of gates for domestic/Ireland flights @ Luton, so are clear of immigration immeadiately. Dublin currently has no such facility. Stansted and Manchester stream these passengers through a seperate channel at Border Control.

It is possible that the GNIB want all passengers through Dublin to at least pass through border control, given the high number of transfer passengers through Heathrow inbound to Dublin. In fact, I suspect that is the case.

jlang

I make a point of showing only my boarding card at immigration when I'm travelling between the UK and Ireland (couple of times a year). I generally have my passport in my pocket as I would have used it as ID to check in at the origin but I've never had to pull it out.

kona

Bond-007 wrote:

I don't see the reason of having passport/immigration checks on UK flights from within the common travel area. Was that not the whole idea of the CTA, no papers and no checks?

well not everybody from EU flights are EU citizens.

mackerski

Here's a thought - I can board a ferry from Scotland to Larne and drive into the Republic. Nobody knows. If stopped by the Guards, I'm not obliged to be carrying ID. They can try to satisfy themselves of my identity, but it's pretty much their problem, not mine. In particular, I'm not obliged even to own a passport to enter the country from the UK. I'm also used to the idea of being able to fly or drive through most of Europe without showing papers at all. The purpose (to me as a passenger) of a common travel area is the avoidance of heavy formality at borders.

It's against this background that I'm annoyed to be forced to wait to approach a booth at a "Passport" control just because Dublin airport can't find a way of separating inbound passengers by origin. It isn't like UK-originating flights are a negligible proportion of arrivals or anything.

Dermot

ardmacha

I make a point of showing only my boarding card at immigration when I'm travelling between the UK and Ireland

A boarding card should not be enough. Non EU citizen visas are not valid in both the UK and Ireland, just because you were legally in Britain doesn't mean that you are entitled to come to Dublin. Now there is a strong case that such visas should be valid in both Ireland and UK, but this is not the case. The present situation is not very satisfactory, but it is not just a question of segregating UK passengers.

Our man in Havana

ardmacha wrote:

A boarding card should not be enough. Non EU citizen visas are not valid in both the UK and Ireland, just because you were legally in Britain doesn't mean that you are entitled to come to Dublin. Now there is a strong case that such visas should be valid in both Ireland and UK, but this is not the case. The present situation is not very satisfactory, but it is not just a question of segregating UK passengers.

If that is the case why are there no checks on our land borders with NI?

Victor

mackerski wrote:

They can try to satisfy themselves of my identity, but it's pretty much their problem, not mine.

The can ask you for your identity, if they believe you are lying they can arrest you until such tiem as they can ascertain your identity. Less their problem, more yours.

mackerski

Victor wrote:

The can ask you for your identity, if they believe you are lying they can arrest you until such tiem as they can ascertain your identity. Less their problem, more yours.

Arrest? On what charge? It isn't an offence to travel without ID - if it were, there'd be a standard form issued to all citizens.

Of course, it's easy for me to say all this - I'm pasty white and not to be mistaken for a nasty foreigner.

Dermot

Victor

Sorry, by identity I mean name, address, date of birth.

The charge, if it arose, would probably be providing false information. Also, one can be arrested, but not charged.

mackerski

Victor wrote:

Also, one can be arrested, but not charged.

Indeed - but you can only be arrested in connection with some specific offence that has the potential to lead to a charge.

Dermot

Our man in Havana

Section 30 of the offences against the state act 1939. you can be detained in relation to no specific offence.

parsi

I know Cork is supposedly an independent republic but it browns me off having to queue at immigration in Dlublin after an internal flight..