anything strange about dubin airport?

adamski8

was just wondering if there was something unique or different about dublin airport. seems to me like a ordinary average airport. ie not tiny, not huge. no crazy difficult terrain around it, short runway, bad weather, rare aircraft passing through etc.
only thing i think is unusual is the passport check seems nearly non-existent (quick glance wave you through) anything else interesting that is unique different?

jimbis

US pre-clearance?

sparrowcar

adamski8 wrote: »

was just wondering if there was something unique or different about dublin airport. seems to me like a ordinary average airport. ie not tiny, not huge. no crazy difficult terrain around it, short runway, bad weather, rare aircraft passing through etc.
only thing i think is unusual is the passport check seems nearly non-existent (quick glance wave you through) anything else interesting that is unique different?

Not really, it's just an average airport. It would suffer from strong winds on a fairly regular basis but nothing out of the ordinary.

Why the question

adamski8

jimbis wrote: »

US pre-clearance?

Yes I forgot that.

scudzilla

Probably one of the only airports in Europe that is it's countries & capital's primary airport without a fecking train line

Cookiemunster

adamski8 wrote: »

Yes I forgot that.

Shannon has it too

adamski8

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Shannon has it too

not looking for exclusively only DA. just not things that are nearly always at airports around the world.

is tha fact that it two roads above/beneath each other unusual, 1 for arrivals and 1 for departures? can't recall seeing that at another airport

Tenger

adamski8 wrote: »

is tha fact that it two roads above/beneath each other unusual, 1 for arrivals and 1 for departures? can't recall seeing that at another airport

Lots of US airports have this system. Arrivals below Departures. (LHR T1 had this in the past,but I haven't been there in a 2 years so not sure anymore)

And I believe IAD still does not have a train line from Washington. (JFK got theirs less than 10 years ago) The demand for a rail connection only makes sense if there are few transport links to Dublin. Over the last 10 years the bus/car access to DUB has dramatically improved. (I can remember when all you had was the 41/16A, Airlink bus or a taxi)

tricky D

Are there many other airports which force people picking up into a pay carpark as opposed to some quick pickup arrangement at Arrivals?

markpb

tricky D wrote: »

Are there many other airports which force people picking up into a pay carpark as opposed to some quick pickup arrangement at Arrivals?

I think both Belfast and Edinburgh do this too.

lord lucan

The Old Terminal Building is unique in airport terms. Amid the concrete terminal buildings and glass piers stands a little jewel that thankfully still retains its original character and also still serves an active part of terminal operations.

Davidth88

I would have said the old terminal building too.

Of course it did have a rather nice mansion within the airport grounds until the vandals in the DAA decided that it wasn't worth keeping

( Corballis House )

mickdw

Wasnt the old terminal designed to look like a ship or something?

therecklessone

mickdw wrote: »

Wasnt the old terminal designed to look like a ship or something?

The bridge of a ship.

It was a fantastic design.

Tenger

therecklessone wrote: »

The bridge of a ship.

It was and is a fantastic design.

Fixed that post for you.

Glad the DAA landscaped the area there while upgrading the overall campus.

L1011

Tenger wrote: »

Fixed that post for you.

Glad the DAA landscaped the area there while upgrading the overall campus.

Pity they put the boring, derivative bridge to Pier D over the landside view of it

The Old Terminal and the main hulk of T1 were daring designs for their era, T1 hasn't aged well mind. The North Terminal (the previous "T2" before T1 was built replacing both of them - you can see it from said bridge) and T2 were still not too bland for their era, but Pier D is just hideous.

A unique thing may be having all of the terminals it ever had still extant.

Bluehair

adamski8 wrote: »

not looking for exclusively only DA. just not things that are nearly always at airports around the world.

Nothing to do with Dublin but I always loved the fact that there are two exits out of the terminal building in Geneva airport.

One door leads to France, the other door to Switzerland

(Can't be a lot of airports with that kind of feature!)

Carraig Fhearghais

tricky D wrote: »

Are there many other airports which force people picking up into a pay carpark as opposed to some quick pickup arrangement at Arrivals?

Belfast International (Aldergrove) make you use a 'short stay' car park when picking up passengers arriving & they also charge to leave departing passengers (£1 - max stay 10 mins) in the 'drop off' zone :mad:.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

L1011

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

D internally is grand. Its just boring as bejaysus outside, compared to every other part of the airport being at least somewhat daring for its era. The original "mutlistory" in T1 that you mentioned is part of that, along the with the overall exterior of the original building

Obviously, Pier D and T1X were built for a reason, to a cost and a delivery date but they could still have done something other than a steel/glass box.

roundymac

scudzilla wrote: »

Probably one of the only airports in Europe that is it's countries & capital's primary airport without a fecking train line

The nearest we have to an airport being rail connected is Kerry/Farrenfore, that's if you don't mind walking the 2 or so miles from the station to the airport.:rolleyes:

Lapin

Terminal 1 is unique(ish) in the layout of its check in desks.

Rather than a single row of desks facing passengers, they are arranged in an island format in clusters in the centre of the floor. This results in queues on one desk backing into queues at the desk opposite.

EDIT:

I knew there was somewhere else. Heathrow Terminal 1 has a similar layout.

handsomecake

Lapin wrote: »

Terminal 1 is unique(ish) in the layout of its check in desks.

Rather than a single row of desks facing passengers, they are arranged in an island format in clusters in the centre of the floor. This results in queues on one desk backing into queues at the desk opposite.

EDIT:

I knew there was somewhere else. Heathrow Terminal 1 has a similar layout.

its a complete cluster**** on busy days

handsomecake

the toilets in t2 were designed by a clown. the hand dryer is in between each sink so you have to lean over the punter beside you while he is washing his hands. there is no urinals in some of the gents-just two stalls, and the infra red sensors on the taps dont work anywhere with any regularity. its a jokeshop

L1011

Those ridiculous dryers are in Pier D also.

ian_m

Loads of info here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_Airport

handsomecake

MYOB wrote: »

Those ridiculous dryers are in Pier D also.

they are even smaller in t2 . its like trying to dry your hands in a letterbox while leaning over someone.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

Turbo Porter

One thing that makes Dublin somewhat unique is that every aircraft of one of the Worlds largest airlines(Ryanair) will make an appearance when it is delivered.

Stovepipe

hi there
T2 is a disaster. You can't go in a straight line between check-in and aircraft, at all. You go up, down ,left,right, anywhich way and your footfall is two or three times the distance required. It's signage is a joke, being Irish or English only. Unlike most international airports of any distinction, it has no segregated rest area so that you can sleep and shower between flights. It also has two tunnels, to T1 and Pier B, which are afterthoughts and totally take away from the look of the building. The T1 building was found in the past to be a fire hazard, until they instigated a cleaning programme to get rid of years of accumulated crap under stairs and elevators and escalators.
Apart from that, it's probably one of the few large main airports that crams the majority of it's buildings into one side, the East, whereas most real airports use every inch of boundary space.
Thankfully, they have got rid of Ryanair's shanty-town "terminal".

regards
Stovepipe

David086

Stovepipe wrote: »

Thankfully, they have got rid of Ryanair's shanty-town "terminal".

Dear Jesus I remember that place it's was absolute hell!

Lapin

Turbo Porter wrote: »

One thing that makes Dublin somewhat unique is that every aircraft of one of the Worlds largest airlines(Ryanair) will make an appearance when it is delivered.

Why?

I always assumed new aircraft went straight to the airport they're due to be based in and got to work.

Turbo Porter

Lapin wrote: »

Why?

I always assumed new aircraft went straight to the airport they're due to be based in and got to work.

No they do not go straight to other airports when delivered the only exception was one delivery that routed to SNN first(due weather)and this came up to DUB once all was clear.It is only after they receive attention in the Ryanair hangar do they go to assigned bases usually within the next day or so.

McNulty737

An army of daa staff in pink jumpers shuffling around the place planning their 10th fag break of the day whilst pretending to look busy. Pretty unique.

AlekSmart

McNulty737 wrote: »

An army of daa staff in pink jumpers shuffling around the place planning their 10th fag break of the day whilst pretending to look busy. Pretty unique.

Ahhhh Joxer....God be with the days when it was an army of TEAM Aer Lingus staff whiling away the hours and wonderin when some African airline would manage to get enough rupees together to finance a few more rivets in a 737 down Hangar 2 way.......;)

Victor

MYOB wrote: »

A unique thing may be having all of the terminals it ever had still extant.

Main terminal buildings, but not piers.

L1011

Victor wrote: »

Main terminal buildings, but not piers.

True. C (albeit most of the building is still there as the Gold Circle lounge etc), the A prefab and the D prefab come to mind, anything else lopped off?

donvito99

Stovepipe wrote: »

hi there
T2 is a disaster. You can't go in a straight line between check-in and aircraft, at all.

Name one airport where this is not the case

You go up, down ,left,right, anywhich way and your footfall is two or three times the distance required. It's signage is a joke, being Irish or English only. Unlike most international airports of any distinction, it has no segregated rest area so that you can sleep and shower between flights.

Again name an airport of similar size that has shower facilites for non-lounge passangers

It also has two tunnels, to T1 and Pier B, which are afterthoughts

They decided to connect terminal 1 afterwards? How else could they be connected. A skybridge style yoke a la pier D?

and totally take away from the look of the building. The T1 building was found in the past to be a fire hazard, until they instigated a cleaning programme to get rid of years of accumulated crap under stairs and elevators and escalators.
Apart from that, it's probably one of the few large main airports that crams the majority of it's buildings into one side, the East, whereas most real airports use every inch of boundary space.

And Dublin needs to use every inch of boundary space because..?..opposite side of airfield has no motorway connections, no bus connections etc etc.

Thankfully, they have got rid of Ryanair's shanty-town "terminal".

regards
Stovepipe

parsi

scudzilla wrote: »

Probably one of the only airports in Europe that is it's countries & capital's primary airport without a fecking train line

Luxembourg doesn't have a rail-line. Or Tegel.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

parsi

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Not sure about Luxembourg, but Schönefeld, Berlin's other airport, has a rail line. Both will be closed next year when Brandenburg is complete. It's currently being built on the Schönefeld site.[/Quote]

Ah but that's in the future !

Lux has provision for a station but who knows when it will happen.

el tel

adamski8 wrote: »

not looking for exclusively only DA. just not things that are nearly always at airports around the world.

is tha fact that it two roads above/beneath each other unusual, 1 for arrivals and 1 for departures? can't recall seeing that at another airport

Vienna has that arrangement.

Lapin

Stovepipe wrote: »

hi there
T2 is a disaster.
......Unlike most international airports of any distinction, it has no segregated rest area so that you can sleep and shower between flights.....

donvito99 wrote: »

Name an airport of similar size that has shower facilites for non-lounge passangers.....

Heathrow has (or at least had) a shower landside in T1.

It is (was) free to anyone who wanted to use it.

I'm using both past & present tenses here because I haven't noticed whether its still there or not on any recent visits.

Tenger

To nitpick......
...the need for showers/rest area are for large international hubs.

Which we can (hopefully) agree that DUB is not (yet?)

And DUB cannot be compared to LHR

Lapin

Tenger wrote: »

To nitpick......
...the need for showers/rest area are for large international hubs.

Which we can (hopefully) agree that DUB is not (yet?)

And DUB cannot be compared to LHR

True on all counts.

It was more a terminal v terminal comparison than whole airport v airport thing.

number10a

Stovepipe wrote: »

T2 is a disaster. It's signage is a joke, being Irish or English only.

What other languages do you expect the signs to be in??

Any airport you go to around the world generally has the local language plus English. The only place I have ever seen an exception to this is Palma Airport where they have German as well as English, Spanish and Catalan.

Edit: as an aside to this, does anyone know why there are signs in Portuguese all the way along the arrivals side of the Pier D bridge telling people to have their passports to hand. It's not even there in Irish or English. Just Portuguese. Like was there a massive problem with Portuguese/Brazilian people not doing this or something?

bk

number10a wrote: »

Like was there a massive problem with Portuguese/Brazilian people not doing this or something?

Well in the last few years there are an awful lot of Brazilian immigrants coming to Ireland who have little or no English.

It is great, they are great dancers

lord lucan

number10a wrote: »

Edit: as an aside to this, does anyone know why there are signs in Portuguese all the way along the arrivals side of the Pier D bridge telling people to have their passports to hand. It's not even there in Irish or English. Just Portuguese. Like was there a massive problem with Portuguese/Brazilian people not doing this or something?

I'm going to hazard a guess as i haven't noticed them. I reckon they could be left over from May when the Europa League Final was held in Dublin. Both clubs(Braga and Porto) were Portugese and each teams fans arrived(and departed) through seperate terminals. I'm guessing these notices were put up temporarily and they've forgotten to take them down.

number10a

lord lucan wrote: »

I'm going to hazard a guess as i haven't noticed them. I reckon they could be left over from May when the Europa League Final was held in Dublin. Both clubs(Braga and Porto) were Portugese and each teams fans arrived(and departed) through seperate terminals. I'm guessing these notices were put up temporarily and they've forgotten to take them down.

That's probably it. The signs look kind of temporary alright. I suppose the fans might not have been aware Ireland was outside of Schengen or something and they were expecting confusion at passport control. But still, everyone else manages.