New Passport Control at Dublin Airport

Burga Galti

Passenger Experience Significantly Improved

A new centralised Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) facility opens at Dublin Airport today, providing easier access to the Airport for millions of international and domestic passengers.

The new facility, delivered by the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in partnership with An Garda Síochána, will more than double the number of passenger processing points available.

Containing 12 passenger processing points, the new facility will service passengers arriving at the Airport via Pier A and the soon-to-be-opened Pier D. There will be a dedicated channel for passengers arriving from other Irish airports.

The location of the new immigration facility will mean a shorter journey for Pier A passengers arriving into the GNIB area. Pier D passengers will access the facility via the new Skybridge linking Pier D to the existing terminal building.

Commenting on the new facility, General Manager-Operations, Brendan Daly said “We have worked very closely with An Garda Síochána Immigration division to deliver this significantly improved new centralised immigration facility. With the coming into operation of Pier D over 60% of Dublin Airport’s arriving passengers will be processed through one of the 12 processing points and once they have cleared Immigration passengers have same level access to the Baggage Hall.”

Commenting on the new custom made facility Detective Chief Superintendent Martin McLaughlin, Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) said "An Garda Síochána welcomes this latest development at Dublin Airport and applauds the Dublin Airport Authority on the speed and efficiency with which it has been completed. The Gardai will play our part in making the visit of all passengers to Dublin Airport as comfortable, efficient and stress-free as possible, this latest facility provided by DAA will contribute greatly to these aims"

This four-phase project was built at a cost of €7 million. The first three phases involved extensive enabling works which included the removal and relocation of several airlines and DAA from office accommodation in the proposed GNIB area. Graham Projects Limited were the main contactors for the overall project while electrical works were carried out by the Ability Group and mechanical works by Lynskey Engineering.


Ends
17th October, 2007

Well, laudable aims but it fell flat on it's face. Went through this new system last night at about 11pm. Me and my girlfriend had come from Manchester, which is a 30min flight by the way, and came into Pier A. Walked along the corridors and into the new immigration area. I say into, but we ran into a queue even before we reached there. This queue looped around the area before coming to the booths, and at one point passed right beside them. It was here I started fuming.

There are 12 booths, 4 were manned. When you finally reached the front of the queue, a girl was directing you towards the booths like in a bank. As a result, 2 of the four booths were empty almost the whole time we were in that queue, which was around 20 min - almost the same as our flight.

As myself and my girlfriend reached the front of the queue it started to speed up dramatically. Why? Because by this time everyone had gotten so frustrated that they had started ignoring the poor girl trying to direct everyone. It might have been less controlled, but is was faster.

By the time we reached the baggage carousel, our bags were going in circles around the conveyor belts! That's practically unheard of at Dublin.

Anyway, the upshot is we had a terrible experience with this and I was wondering if any other passengers have had the same, or did we just arrive at a bad time?

Bluetonic

Went through it Saturday night, no problems what so ever.

Nice to see the segregation no between departures and arrivals, well not full segregation but getting there.

On a side note, it's going to be a long walk down pier D when it opens!

trellheim

It's OK, since Ryanair and Aerlingus can only be arsed to use one or two baggage belts there's no point rushing.