Long procession of aeroplanes flying over Killiney and Dun Laogjaire tonight?

hatrickpatrick

Was just out walking my dog (left the house maybe 11.30PM) around Newtown Smith Green, basically the Sandycove seafront between DL Baths and Burdett Avenue. For the entire duration of the walk, the same pattern repeated: lights would appear eerily through the fog, becoming visible sort of over Killiney (or at least in that direction, towards Glenageary anyway) before flying diagonally over Dun Lapghaire and eventually out over Dublin Bay. The timing was identical every time: just when one set of plane lights would disappear into the fog / light of the Dublin skyline in the distance, a new one would appear in the fog above Killiney - te cycle was fast, with a new plane perhaps every two minutes or maybe even less.

I've never seen anything like this before - what I'm wondering is, was this an exceptionally long line of separate, unique planes - or was there an air traffic holdup at the airport and therefore these were actually the same group of planes on a queue loop, circling around indefinitely until given permission to land? It seems strange that there would be that many planes all coming from exactly the same direction, landing in Dublin Airport at this hour of the night on a Thursday - indeed, there were so many that I honestly wouldn't be sure if Dublin Airport even has the capacity for that many landings at once.

Alternatively, is it possible that they were simply transiting Ireland on their way somewhere else? If so, it still seems odd seeing as I've lived here since '95 and literally have never seen anything like this before. If it's a regular occurrence and a regular route, I'd be quite astounded that I've never noticed it.

Anyone have any info?

robyntmorton

34 is the active runway. Approach is over Shankill, Killiney, Dun Laoghaire. Totally normal at night if there are works on 28.

Gaoth Laidir

There is work on the main runway every night so aircraft are landing on Runway 34 (the northwesterly runway through the night. The approach for this takes them over the areas you've highlighted.

Nothing strange about it, it's just that we don't get northerly winds very often so that is why they're landing towards the north this week.

hatrickpatrick

Thanks for the info! Still seemed like an exceptional amount of traffic, but then I suppose I've often landed around this time of night so maybe it's a standard landing time - I must have counted at least 15 or 20 planes during the hour or so I was out walking.

How many planes does the airport have the capacity for simultaneous landings, in terms of arrival gates etc?

LXFlyer

It's simply the return of the Dublin based short haul fleet of Ryanair and Aer Lingus at the end of the day - nothing unusual about it at all.

It's no different to the early morning start up of the short haul fleets, except that the evening arrivals are over a longer period.

Earlier arrivals would have already vacated some gates for overnight maintenance in the hangars.

faoiarvok

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

How many planes does the airport have the capacity for simultaneous landings, in terms of arrival gates etc?

Push comes to shove, they can always park them remotely and bus passengers, or wait on the taxiways for an empty plane to be moved away from a gate. If they're coming in, they'll be landed up to the safe limit of runway movements (take-offs or landings). Think I remember 90 movements per hour being Dublin's single runway limit, but I'm open to correction, and it's quite possibly different for 34 compared to 28.

More info on the works and effects: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/night-flights-over-south-dublin-during-runway-overhaul-1.2714068

The Rape of Lucretia

You can see the same stream from Killiney, Dun Laoghaire many evenings if you look towards howth into the airport. Sometime when there is a string of landings only, a clear sky with the sun catching them, you can see 5 or 6 planes at a time, as the leading one just goes down below the building line, and the glint of the furthest one in the sun.

bikeman1

That would an airport with over 25 million passengers annually.

It's a daily occurrence on the northside, you're just not used to it as we are over this side of the city. The amount of movements has greatly increased over recent years. It is so busy that a holding pattern can be in place similar to other major airports with such a demand on the runway.

With the cold northerly winds this week and work on resurfacing the main runway 10/28 there are flights landing on runway 34 which as you describe has its approach via Killiney, Dun Laoghaire, Dublin Bay, Clontarf, Beaumont and into the airport.

EchoIndia

And of course you can observe the traffic at any time on this website: https://www.flightradar24.com/53.28,-6.29/8