Security at Dublin airport

CardinalJ

Dunno if anyone else has had problems with the massive Q times today or recently. They're on a go slow and being obnoxious!! We Q'd for 45 mins to get through this morning. Was talking to a few people while waiting who had missed flights yesterday and today.

Berty

If somebody is being clearly obnoxious to you then take their name and report them to the airport duty manager.

As long as you have jumped through EU security procedures, removed your belt, jacket, objects from your pockets, laptop from your bag and presented your boarding card, liquids, gels and paste in a clear baggie WITHOUT being asked then they should not be obnoxious to you.

Bear in mind that the amount of freakin idiots travelling through airports is phenomenal. The amount of people who get to the metal detector/xray and are told that they need to do all of the above is crazy.

What, show you my boarding card, take my laptop out, take off my belt, why should i take my phone out of my pocket?

Again nobody in the world has the right to be obnoxious and it goes against the DAA Charter for customer excellence so report to the nearest supervisor. It will save you spending your money at the other side if you have something constructive to do whilst waiting for your flight.

Mr. Presentable

45 mins is excessive. But, people are not leaving enough time to get to their flights. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the recommendation 2 hours? Passengers checking in at home have some idea that because they're checked in they have merely to turn up and get on the plane.

Oh, and what the previous poster said - the number of people with umbrellas and bottles of water in their carry-on is unreal. They cannot all be first timers :mad:

Bandit12

Should have got there earlier

Mint Sauce

in peoples defence, you do ocasionally forget, but for international airports such as dublin, you really shouldn't, you see hundreds of people in front of you taking off their jackets, belts etc, rearranging their pockets, ie, all the loose items from their trousers, and putting them in jacket pockets and carry on bags, getting the lappy sorted, etc, surly thats some reminder for you do it

Pete4779

CardinalJ wrote: »

Dunno if anyone else has had problems with the massive Q times today or recently. They're on a go slow and being obnoxious!! We Q'd for 45 mins to get through this morning. Was talking to a few people while waiting who had missed flights yesterday and today.

It's peak holiday season and loads of package tours go out on Fridays and Saturdays at the moment.

I've always found they get big queues moving very quickly.

ScabbyLeg

The last 4 times I've been through security at Dublin since Easter, the queues have been excessively long. I just went through Frankfurt today and there's just no comparison. As stupid as the general public are, they're no more stupid going through Dublin security than they are at any other airport. Dublin is simply understaffed and has inadequate facilities.

As for EU regulations if you're going to be pedantic about it, EASA regulations allow a knife blade up to 6cm in length if I recall correctly. Some airports actually allow this and some (eg. Dublin) don't. Not saying it's a bad thing, but it's still hit and miss with what you can bring through. You see it more often with shoes and belts, it can be a mixed bag.

Dublin though, shtty airport in all aspects. There's a charter???

flikflak

The airport is very busy in the mornings. From 5am - 8am its crazy. I once arrived 2 hours before, checked in and went to queue for security. The queue was snaking around the outside of the airport. I missed my flight as it took so long.

You really need to get there at least 2 hours before in the summer on any flight going out in the morning.

Then again people who stand there in the queue watching everyone else take off their coats and belts off, removing large metal items and taking out their little see through bags in readiness for when they get to the front of the queue annoy me when they suddenly get to the front of the line and take ages to fart around taking all their coats and other things off.

Grrrrrrrrrr are you blind and oblivious to everything going on around you?

Pythia

So arriving at 6 for bag tag and drop, brekkie and flight at 8 will still be ok tomorrow?

Pythia

Pythia wrote: »

So arriving at 6 for bag tag and drop, brekkie and flight at 8 will still be ok tomorrow?

As long as you have your brekkie AFTER security queue. Honestly, you need to get your stuff through, queue for security straight after.

eamon234

Went through Alicante airport yesterday they were brilliant - had a special area just for families with small kids and the staff were very friendly and helpful - my 2 year old still had to be frisked though - the look on his face was priceless!

sdanseo

I'm sorry but this has to be said: the majority of people who use the airport fail to bother preparing for security and it simply is NOT GOOD ENOUGH to blame the DAA. Yes, the airport is a mess but I genuinely believe they are making the very best they can of Terminal 1 as it really is an unbearable heap of shíte.

I haven't worked for them in a year, but when I did the amount of twats was unbelieveable. Signs all over the place, TV screens, AV presentations, more pink t-shirts than a clown convention and people still arrived at security with a full trolley, rooting for passports, fecking the trolley wherever they want clogging the place to high heaven. Then they get into the queue and have to be pulled out by staff because they have shopping bags full of factor 50 still on them, belts still on etc etc

People also asked the stupidest of questions: what area is my flight when each area has a 2ft x 2ft sign with a number and a 20m wide board in the middle telling you where to go for every single flight - among others. I mean, I accept some people may not be familiar with airports, may be stressed etc but how much is it to ask that you read the bloody signs?

People need to realise that you cannot just walk into the airport and expect to waltz through any more. You have to do your bit, and I'm with the DAA on this, they've done all they can really (except im vehemently against charging for the bags).

jhegarty

sdonn wrote: »

I'm sorry but this has to be said: the majority of people who use the airport fail to bother preparing for security and it simply is NOT GOOD ENOUGH to blame the DAA. Yes, the airport is a mess but I genuinely believe they are making the very best they can of Terminal 1 as it really is an unbearable heap of shíte.

I haven't worked for them in a year, but when I did the amount of twats was unbelieveable. Signs all over the place, TV screens, AV presentations, more pink t-shirts than a clown convention and people still arrived at security with a full trolley, rooting for passports, fecking the trolley wherever they want clogging the place to high heaven. Then they get into the queue and have to be pulled out by staff because they have shopping bags full of factor 50 still on them, belts still on etc etc

People also asked the stupidest of questions: what area is my flight when each area has a 2ft x 2ft sign with a number and a 20m wide board in the middle telling you where to go for every single flight - among others. I mean, I accept some people may not be familiar with airports, may be stressed etc but how much is it to ask that you read the bloody signs?

People need to realise that you cannot just walk into the airport and expect to waltz through any more. You have to do your bit, and I'm with the DAA on this, they've done all they can really (except im vehemently against charging for the bags).

If this is the cause could they not solve the problem by having one person 10 minutes down the queue telling people what they need to do?

alpha2zulu

I'm sorry but this has to be said: the majority of people who use the airport fail to bother preparing for security and it simply is NOT GOOD ENOUGH to blame the DAA. Yes, the airport is a mess but I genuinely believe they are making the very best they can of Terminal 1 as it really is an unbearable heap of shíte.

Thats bang on. The only area I would suggest the wait times could be improved is to have staff after the boarding card check repeating,belts off,keys and watches out,liquids ina bag speel.

Leaving aside the suggestions of a work to rule out at the Airport,most of the grief at this time is caused by the numpty passengers,who in my expierience are just plain stupid and/or just too self important to remove a metal belt etc without being prompted. Once September rolls around the issues will start to resolve themselves anyway.

What I'd love to see here is a system which is in force at a couple of US airports which have designated lines for passengers who know the drill at security and another line for occasional/less well informed passengers. Of course at first it might be a little tricky differentiating the different passengers but if the DAA were feeling a bit adventurous I'm sure it could be workable.

carlow_kid

alpha2zulu wrote: »

What I'd love to see here is a system which is in force at a couple of US airports which have designated lines for passengers who know the drill at security and another line for occasional/less well informed passengers. Of course at first it might be a little tricky differentiating the different passengers but if the DAA were feeling a bit adventurous I'm sure it could be workable.

Brill idea - just mentioned it myself on a different forum. Still, the stupid pax can explain only so much of a delay ... not the 45 min it is taking at DUB these days.

Mr. Presentable

jhegarty wrote: »

If this is the cause could they not solve the problem by having one person 10 minutes down the queue telling people what they need to do?

Do you mean in addition to the signs, announcements and videos?

tinkerbell

*sigh* some people going through the airport can be such idiots. I always try to have my stuff ready to get through security as quick as possible yet some buffoons just spend so much time rumaging around just when they are told to put their stuff on the conveyor belt, ugh!

cuebase

I red these posts after leaving dublin airport with a very dissapointed child this morning. Was due to fly to brusselss at 6:50am. Got to airport at 5am. Had a rasher and cup of tea. Went back to depatures at exactly 5:40am. Nearly died when I saw the queue. It was in a big trail the whole size of the airport. Got on queue and an hour later got to security check. People all over the queue were very stressed as they new they would miss there flights. After security check went at speed to gate. met with grumpy aer lingus staff to say sorry flight closed. Could see plane on tarmac with stairs still there and doors open. Expalined my case was told nothing can be done flight closed. After going back to terminal talked with both aer lingus and DAA and yes you guessed it got knowhere. There is an obvious dispute going on at this airport but knobody wll admit it. Its a typical Irish mess with nobody taking any responsibility. left airport with very upset wife and daughter. And apart from loosing the flight and holiday home money my 60 euro pre paid online car park charge is gone to. Believe me its not the peoples fault. Apart from me I saw about 30 others miss there flights at different gates. I have been using dublin airport reguarly for years now and never ever saw the likes of this.

J

paddydriver

Its just galling to hear of people arriving on time to the airport and still missing flights. It should not be the case that someone needs to stand in a security queue for 1 hour - no matter what time of the day it is. If this is the case then someone just is not doing their job.

Everytime that Ryanair takes on DAA about this they put that stone faced bi**h from DAA on the TV to say all is fine and no reports of people missing their flights.

Dublin Airport is a disaster of monumental proportions. Personally I blame unionisation for most of this... and indeed many other messed up areas of this country. Too many people are totally unaccountable for their actions and just screw the punter.

You think the guy working the xray machine stands in the queue when he is going on his 4 weeks of holidays... and that's just the first holiday.

Problem is that the deeper we get into recession the less these people will work. Its not as though they are afraid of losing their job!

Maybe I have gone off topic but alot needs to be sorted out in that airport and leaving the clusterf**k's at DAA to do it means it aint gonna get done.

Mr. Presentable

cuebase wrote: »

I red these posts after leaving dublin airport with a very dissapointed child this morning. Was due to fly to brusselss at 6:50am. Got to airport at 5am. Had a rasher and cup of tea. Went back to depatures at exactly 5:40am. Nearly died when I saw the queue. It was in a big trail the whole size of the airport. Got on queue and an hour later got to security check. People all over the queue were very stressed as they new they would miss there flights. After security check went at speed to gate. met with grumpy aer lingus staff to say sorry flight closed. Could see plane on tarmac with stairs still there and doors open. Expalined my case was told nothing can be done flight closed. After going back to terminal talked with both aer lingus and DAA and yes you guessed it got knowhere. There is an obvious dispute going on at this airport but knobody wll admit it. Its a typical Irish mess with nobody taking any responsibility. left airport with very upset wife and daughter. And apart from loosing the flight and holiday home money my 60 euro pre paid online car park charge is gone to. Believe me its not the peoples fault. Apart from me I saw about 30 others miss there flights at different gates. I have been using dublin airport reguarly for years now and never ever saw the likes of this.

J

Can you not take responsibility for the fact that in spite of arriving in time you went for a 40 minute breakfast before checking in? This is exactly "the People's fault"

Mr. Presentable

paddydriver wrote: »

Its just galling to hear of people arriving on time to the airport and still missing flights. .

Sorry Paddy, but read his post again. He effectively arrived 50 minutes later than the recommended time.

mikedragon32

nipplenuts wrote: »

Sorry Paddy, but read his post again. He effectively arrived 50 minutes later than the recommended time.

Pretty expensive rasher alright...

paddydriver, some of your comments are best suited to R&R or AH. Try and tone down the rhetoric please?

People have to learn that there is a certain amount of repsonsibility that they must take as individuals. You would need to be living on Mars not to know that Dublin Airport is an unholy mess when it comes to security and/or check-in and even the 90 minutes DAA advise isn't always enough, particularly at peak times. The Monday morning commuter flight "rush hour" is notorious.

Risking a holiday for the sake of taking an extra bit of time to ensure your passage through security is just asking for trouble.

enzo7

nipplenuts wrote: »

Can you not take responsibility for the fact that in spite of arriving in time you went for a 40 minute breakfast before checking in? This is exactly "the People's fault"

Have to agree, this is the problem people not been on time, not the airport. Dont most airline recommend you be at the gate 40min b4 depature. I always arrive at the checkin desk 2.5 hrs b4 departure so im near the top of the que , den i head straight to security and hav my stress free coffee in the departure lounge. to leave 70min to get through security and down to your gate at the airports busys time with a child is crazy.

Berty

As a staunch believer in being on time and mostly early, I have no pity for anybody who thinks that they can saunter to their gate with minutes to spare.

Airlines will not wait for you and never trust anybody around you. The person in the queue in front of you and behind you would step over your dead body to get their flight on time.

If your flight is going at 10am arrive at 8am and go straight through the gate. Have your 15 cigarettes beforehand if needs be but go straight through.

If you are flying on a really important flight with connections in another airport then arrive earlier. Seriously, you probably have the day off work to travel on holidays and therefore have feck all to do.

If you respond by saying you have packing to do. You Should have packed days in advance anyway LIKE ME!

Remember there are two check in zones. The brain will naturally bring you to the left hand side of the terminal but this is a MISTAKE.

Most Ryanair, Aer Fungus flights desks are located near this one and those people try to sneak on everything they can onto the flights and therefore slow down the queue.

Naturally I always wander all the way up to the International desks where the other zone is which is ALWAYS quieter.

I have read on this Forum and on Tripadvisor that people assume they will get through security if they have children. NO YOU SHOULD NOT. I paid for my flight and you can join the queue behind me unless you are physically impaired you should get no special treatment.

Dont stand like a freakin moron at the metal detector and pronounce

"What, take off my jacket, belt and take out my laptop? What do you mean liquids, pastes or gels?"

You should be culled.

spurious

I was there the other week and there was a guy pushing through the security at 6.10am for a 6.40am flight.
Ridiculous.

Berty

spurious wrote: »

I was there the other week and there was a guy pushing through the security at 6.10am for a 6.40am flight.
Ridiculous.

What you need to do is find yourself a pink polo shirt wearing DAA customer service person and ask them.

I abhor people who believe their lateness is of utmost importance.

Airline and Airport on Channel Dave spring to mind. My god those people are mindless.

Fratton Fred

spurious wrote: »

I was there the other week and there was a guy pushing through the security at 6.10am for a 6.40am flight.
Ridiculous.

Air france (Cityjet) quote last check in 30 minutes before the flight departs, Aer Lingus quote 45 minutes.

I arrived at the airport at 6:50 this morning for a 7:35 flight, collected boarding pass from machine, joined queue, boarded plane from gate A2 at 7:15 no problem.

The problem is simple, yes there are some thick people who start unloading pockets, jewelery, phones watches etc when they get to the x-ray machine and they do hold things up, but the main problem is simple in my mind, they are trying to squeeze too many people through a narrow gap.

they have just spent a load of money on the new shops, could they not have extended the security area by two or three more lanes? mind you, more security lanes doesn't make any money does it?

zagmund

Shows great professionalism (not) from whoever was taking the video from behind the desk. I take it that since it was behind the desk they were an airline or airport employee or else security is a bit lax.

Would they video someone throwing up in their airport or having a heart attack ? Why is it deemed acceptable to show someone who is obviously very distressed (and possibly mentally unwell) like this ?

z

zagmund

It's all very easy to say "you should turn up on time", but there is *no* time that you can turn up at which will ensure you get on your flight.

There is no service level agreement in place between the airport and the passengers which might help in this case.

What if you turn up 3h early and the Aer Lingus desk are having a snot and taking ages ? And then the security people are having a snot too ? Yes, and some stupid people are in the queue too. It really doesn't matter to the airline or the airport as at the end of the day they will just say "gate closed".

The real problem here is that the un-stupid people among us can turn up on time and still miss flights because of someone elses actions and there is *nothing* that the airlines or airport will do. There are things they can do alright, but nothing they will do.

z

cuebase

if you read my post you will see I turned up at 5 am got to to queue at 5.40 am. Had checekd in already. Had no baggage to frop off all hand baggage. One hour ina queue is not on. I never ever experienced this anywhere even in the security crazed usa. But having said that sometimes thing go wrong but as the previous poster says its what they do about it which is nothing.

Podman

I find that 2 hours used to be just enough time to go straight through to the plane.

I have a flight at 2pm tomorrow, although after reading this thread I might leave the house tonight.

It might just be enough time to tramp through the terminal 2 building site to find the front entrance, overcome the noise and confusion to find the information about "where the heck am I?", hurry up and wait in line for the single uninterested check-in desk, negotiate the rat-maze into security where I will be methodically frisked, humiliated and de-humanized, recover dignity and locate where the idiot pilot will park, run the gauntlet of shame down to the furthest gate from the security desk, and wonder why the place is deserted of staff - only us ragged and sweaty passengers eager to "begin" our journey.

I will petition for the train to go from Dublin to Chicago! (bringing my own sandwiches)

paddydriver

nipplenuts wrote: »

Sorry Paddy, but read his post again. He effectively arrived 50 minutes later than the recommended time.

Yeh, I know... but did not want to making him more p'ed than he already was:o

Dont think the restaurants outside the security check should allow intending travellers in anymore - maybe a disclaimer (Along the lines of an age old bed time prayer)

"Now I lay me down to eat, I pray the security man my flight to keep, and just in case the queue is too long, I pray the security gentleman gets off his backside and stops working to rule..." Bah....

paddydriver

mikedragon32 wrote: »

Pretty expensive rasher alright...

paddydriver, some of your comments are best suited to R&R or AH. Try and tone down the rhetoric please?

People have to learn that there is a certain amount of repsonsibility that they must take as individuals. You would need to be living on Mars not to know that Dublin Airport is an unholy mess when it comes to security and/or check-in and even the 90 minutes DAA advise isn't always enough, particularly at peak times. The Monday morning commuter flight "rush hour" is notorious.

Risking a holiday for the sake of taking an extra bit of time to ensure your passage through security is just asking for trouble.

Yeh, appols... got a little heated. But they do irk me!

cuebase

Since when is going through depature gates 1 hour 10 minutes before flight to late. Here is a snip of DAA's own sla.

Service/System
AOC commitment
DAA commitment
Monitoring
Security Passenger Search
Queuing time no longer than 7 minutes, 95% of the time, during the hours of operation
Airline Station Managers and DAA Duty Managers to monitor
Sampling at peak times
MRBI 2 days per month
Constant Pax count per 15 minutes

brettmirl

cuebase wrote: »

Got to airport at 5am. Had a rasher and cup of tea. Went back to depatures at exactly 5:40am. Nearly died when I saw the queue. It was in a big trail the whole size of the airport.

Did you not notice the queue for security that was "the whole size of the airport" when you went into the airport in the first place for your breakfast?

As someone else mentioned, always check the two different security entrances too. Sometimes there can be a mad queue at one, and hardly anyone at the other!

dudara

I'm a pretty seasoned business traveller having used Dublin airport about 100+ times in the last year.

There is something wrong at that airport - something deeply wrong. Security queues are ridicuously long and standing in line for an hour to go through security before 6am in the morning is a clear indicator of that.

I have never seen queues in any other airport that are the same length as those in Dublin.

This is in no way excusing people who are ill-prepared or cut times tight. You can arrive at that airport in plenty of time, with everything ready for security and you'll still get f*cked.

cuebase

You see brettmirl you dont know what your talking about, you were not there. When I arrived at the airport it was just a normal monday, I am a frequent flier not by choice its my job. But after about ten minutes form listening to other passengers the security screening staff went on a go slow. people would arrive at the security screening point and be held there for 10 mins or so. 11 people missed the flight I was on alone. The gate next to me was Going to niece and there were people there who missed the flight also. This is not normal. What is happening is with the downturn in throughput a few contacts were not renewed so low and behold we have this kaos.

cuebase

Both queue's were out of control long and if there was one without anyone at it as you say how hard is it for a member of DAA to come down and tell people to move to the other gate.

mickoneill30

cuebase wrote: »

You see brettmirl you dont know what your talking about, you were not there. When I arrived at the airport it was just a normal monday, I am a frequent flier not by choice its my job.

Me too. Rule number one for me though is get through security in any airport. After that if I've got time I'll have breakfast or wander around the shops.

If it's really a protest then fire the people protesting. I hate this kind of crap. We're in the middle of recession and a few jobsworths are making loads of people miss their flights.

JMcCR

As a frequent traveller though Dub airport (every week!) at peak times I just wanted to make a couple of small points.

I always arrive at the terminal, checked in at 5am for a 6am flight. I have never missed a plane (including yesterday which was very busy). Go straight though security. Don't go eat or hang around unnessessarily. You can eat in the food court, or better still there is a nice, quieter, restaurant at the B gate where you can get food and free coffee refills! - and yes, I usually have time for this.

Also, if you are travelling with small children (under about 3 or 4 years old) go to the fast track / domestic channel for security. DAA staff are always letting people with small kids though here.

Taking into account the frequency I meet the security staff, in my opinion, about 30% of them are ignorant, rude and unhelpful. Seriously DAA, get these people some "sevice excellence" training :rolleyes:

mikedragon32

cuebase, if you are a frequent flier, then you'd know not to take anything for granted at DUB.

Any seasoned travellers I know arrive early, go through as soon as possible and then get whatever they want airside. There is nothing landside that can't be had on the far side of security.

You're right about nobody else on this thread was there at the same time as you, but I can bet a lot of contributors have experienced the queues for security. It's not cool and it needs to be sorted, but you have to make allowances if you want to be sure of making your flight.

Anyway, before this thread goes into some form of infinite loop, I'm closing it.