The DUB Passport/Immigration Queue Thread

trellheim

I've been checked at every UK airport this last two years ( but it's a 1 in 10 chance ).

To give credit etc T1 (incorrectly named by DAA as passport control) through in < 30 seconds this evening.


To OP : E-Gates are not fully automatic and require staff to work them ; others here can give a better idea of the staffing patterns. It is generally not a problem AFAIK with the gates themselves but willing to be proved wrong on this.

Kermit.de.frog

Stephen Strange wrote: »

The tweet which you've pretty much quoted verbatim mentions nothing of arrivals. So I would take it to mean departures, considering there is no security checks after arrival.

Ok that's right. So let's not divert from the problem. Personally I have never had a poor experience in departures myself. Maybe that is just luck.

The arrivals situation I and many others are far more interested in.

Dublin Airport don't want to know about queries relating to this and simply refer everyone to INIS. That's ok, they are responsible. Problem is they have nothing to say on the issue of the situation with arrivals.

So nobody has anything to say officially.

What should happen is for someone to tell us cleary what the nature of the problem is.

Is there a work to rule? Incompetent management? Not enough staff? Are the staff incompetent? Lack of training?....

Then we can understand more cleary why lanes are always closed at the busiest times, passport machine lanes ALL closed, and huge queues of mind boggled frustrated passengers.

Does anyone here know what the problem is and is there a resolution?

Idbatterim

We all know the type employed for those roles. They feel like run airport. Pay isn’t enough , you should be thankful they even showed up to work ... typical ajh’s!

Locker10a

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

Ok that's right. So let's not divert from the problem. Personally I have never had a poor experience in departures.

The arrivals situation I and many others are far more interested in.

Dublin Airport don't want to know about queries relating to this and simply refer everyone to INIS. That's ok, they are responsible. Problem is they have nothing to say on the issue of the situation with arrivals.

So nobody has anything to say officially.

What should happen is for someone to tell us cleary what the nature of the problem is.

Is there a work to rule? Incompetent management? Not enough staff? Are the staff incompetent? Lack of training?....

Then we can understand more cleary why lanes are always closed at the busiest times, passport machine lanes ALL closed, and huge queues of mind boggled frustrated passengers.

Does anyone here know what the problem is and is there a resolution?

Sorry but there’s already a thread about this somewhere. And it’s been done to death. What you saidwas false, claims of delays at passport control on arrival was false, and therefore I don’t think we need to discuss here an issue that didn’t actually happen.

Stephen Strange

Idbatterim wrote: »

We all know the type employed for those roles. They feel like run airport. Pay isn’t enough , you should be thankful they even showed up to work ... typical ajh’s!

So much bs in one post, it's hard to know where to start.

Kermit.de.frog

Locker10a wrote: »

Sorry but there’s already a thread about this somewhere. And it’s been done to death. What you saidwas false, claims of delays at passport control on arrival was false, and therefore I don’t think we need to discuss here an issue that didn’t actually happen.

Maybe you need some early morning arrivals yourself to understand this is happening all the time and has been happening for years.

People are correct to be angry walking past closed passport machines, stuck in a queue with only a couple of lanes opens and customs officers working in slow motion.

We seem unable to get any straight answers as to what the problem is.

I'll search for the other thread.

theguzman

Stephen Strange wrote: »

If you read the tweet, it very clearly refers to security in Departures. Customs spot checks are not a security check.

There is no tweet linked here and I don't use social media at all like the rest of the lemmings.

Locker10a

Stephen Strange wrote: »

So much bs in one post, it's hard to know where to start.

Ah that’s normal for this poster, smirk, ignore, and move on works best for posters like that

revenent

Main issue with immigration is low staff numbers. E-gates are working just no staff to man them, other thread as others have said has more info given.

Irish Steve

There have been a number of posts that are completely unrelated to Passport/Immigration issues, some have been deleted, some moved to other threads. Please stay on topic

Kermit.de.frog

Good to see a politician calling out this nonsense

https://twitter.com/DublinAirport/status/1075359408064999425

But it's the same stock response.

Another...

https://twitter.com/DublinAirport/status/1075430931702444033

If someone can tell us what the nature of the problem is from the INIS then maybe people might be more understanding but nobody seems to know anything.

ohnonotgmail

What other response do you expect Dublin Airport to give? They have no control over the gates.

L1011

It would not be appropriate for a semi-state company to put pressure on INIS publicly like Hayes is asking for. I presume they do privately

revenent

Main issue with ourselves is staffing. We have very few extra staff available, and when we have inads it creates points where we can't fill the booths, never mind the egates. Egates take at minimum 2 staff, 3 if all 10 are going and usually iff its a case of fill 3 booths or run 10 egates, supervisors will rightly choose the booths.
The old argument of can't we see when flights are landing is also not relevent, of course we can its the fact we havnt got enough people on staff. Look at state out, year on year more numbers and as such, new routes, more inads and more problems, yet staff numbers have either remained constant or gone down(don't have numbers on hand)
Most of these issues have been coveted to death on this thread and nothing much has changed! Maybe it's actually got worse!!

California Dreamer

Uh oh we will probably wake you know who who will come in to defend the system and how great it is all the other times we are not there.:eek:

The Veteran

California Dreamer wrote: »

Uh oh we will probably wake you know who who will come in to defend the system and how great it is all the other times we are not there.:eek:

Yawn! If your comment is directed at me, it bores me. I never said the "system" was great at any point but what I have done on a number of occasions is explain the realities to posters including yourself who were ill informed. There is no need for me to say anything in relation to today's tweets reproduced in this thread beyond what Revenant has posted. The deployment of resources at any point in time is down to the supervisors on duty based on what is actually happening at that point in time - choices therefore have to be made. Finally as I have consistently pointed out the primary function of the service is ensuring effective controls are in place not "fast" controls.

LiamaDelta

California Dreamer wrote:

Uh oh we will probably wake you know who who will come in to defend the system and how great it is all the other times we are not there.

Please don't make personal swipes at other posters. Some of us find their insight useful and would hate to lose that. Comments like that just serve to put genuine posters off.

California Dreamer

LiamaDelta wrote: »

Please don't make personal swipes at other posters. Some of us find their insight useful and would hate to lose that. Comments like that just serve to put genuine posters off.

Who did I take a personal swipe at mod?

If the record is broken it’s still broken no matter how many times you try to spin it otherwise. Now I hear it takes 2-3 staff to man the e-gates? Typical Irish solution to an Irish problem. Spent huge money installing e-gates but not invest in staffing levels.

Beechwoodspark

Went thru the gates the other day. Monday.

Worked like a dream I would say maybe 15 seconds all told for it to let me true.

Happy customer here and for what it’s worth everyone I was traveling with complemented them to the staff working there.

trellheim

Now I hear it takes 2-3 staff to man the e-gates? Typical Irish solution to an Irish problem. Spent huge money installing e-gates but not invest in staffing levels.

As one of the biggest critics of them its worth criticizing on the facts I think. One of the main fallacies is that the egates are automatic; they are not. They require human overwatch.

INIS did recruit a bunch of staff when they took over from AGS - we covered it here in thread. However a very useful PQ might be to inquire as to the staffing levels by quarter and where they have all gone.

killbillvol2

California Dreamer wrote: »

Who did I take a personal swipe at mod?

If the record is broken it’s still broken no matter how many times you try to spin it otherwise. Now I hear it takes 2-3 staff to man the e-gates? Typical Irish solution to an Irish problem. Spent huge money installing e-gates but not invest in staffing levels.

You should get out more. E-gates have to be staffed everywhere.

billy few mates

At this time of the year there should be no excuse for not having every single booth and machine fully staffed and operational.
We wouldn't put up with Tesco opening half the tills at busy periods like Christmas...

Hotblack Desiato

Bit more to this job than operating a checkout.

You can't magic up trained staff out of thin air, or take them out of cold storage when you need them.

wangchung

INIS won't be investing in the improvement of the immigration service at the airport . So if you think the queues are bad now, wait till you see next year with all the extra flights DAA will be bringing in , there will be complete mayhem ,especially during the summer

The Veteran

Christmas is not that busy in numbers terms - more non regulars and folks travelling for Christmas but Summer months are busier.

Trellhein - the PQ you suggest would be a good.one but you'd also have to control for the different areas that were with INIS at the different points in time to get the real picture. You would also need to factor in scanning g documents from November 16 and the impact that had.

I agree that next years summer schedule could be carnage. In fact I would think Easter will show it

billy few mates

billy few mates wrote: »

At this time of the year there should be no excuse for not having every single booth and machine fully staffed and operational.
We wouldn't put up with Tesco opening half the tills at busy periods like Christmas...

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Bit more to this job than operating a checkout.

You can't magic up trained staff out of thin air, or take them out of cold storage when you need them.

Neither of them involve any element of rocket surgery...

trellheim

I came through a largely deserted T1 at 0030 off the last STN this morning and was through in < 30 secs ; Egates not working but .... who cares . As people have said above the summer is going to be horrible especially the last wave of inbounds

TBH the taxi queue was far worse as a rainy night coming up to Xmas left the airport tight enough

jamo2oo9

trellheim wrote: »

I came through a largely deserted T1 at 0030 off the last STN this morning and was through in < 30 secs ; Egates not working but .... who cares . As people have said above the summer is going to be horrible especially the last wave of inbounds

TBH the taxi queue was far worse as a rainy night coming up to Xmas left the airport tight enough

Queues for immigration during late nights (11pm onward) are generally non-existent. I've yet to come across a queue that takes more than 10mins at those times.

Taxi queues however are horrible at that time since nobody is getting a taxi to the airport so less taxis going to the taxi rank.

trellheim

Queues for immigration during late nights (11pm onward) are generally non-existent.

What ? The inbound FR spanish last wave during the summer leaves it maniac at T1 read back up the thread its a circus some nights and its only going to get worse.

Under His Eye

Passport gates working today at 10.30.

Went to a manned booth, total time in Passport hall was under a minute. Excellent service.