The DUB Passport/Immigration Queue Thread

California Dreamer · 04-03-2019 09:23AM

Quelle surprise!!! No E-Gates working this morning.

It’s certainly up there as a big waste of money.

WishUWereHere · 27-05-2019 06:47PM

I flew into Dublin from Manchester last night on Ryanair. Bloody plane was late arriving in Manchester and had the knockon effect of leaving late, thus arriving in Dublin around 23h00.

Started off on the long trek to passport control, and saw one of the moving walkways cordoned off, but still running. - wtf?

Anyhow, they threw a cordon in front of us just at the end of the walkway and just prior to entering the Passport control chamber. The cordon was lifted after about 5 minutes, at this stage it was about 23h15. Turned the corner only to discover why the cordon had been manned - the place was packed...at that hour of the night on a Sunday???

What's the point in DAA trying to entice more airlines to land in Dublin, when they obviously cannot handle what's already coming in? BTW, every passport booth was manned.

OldMrBrennan83 · 27-05-2019 06:49PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I flew into Dublin from Manchester last night on Ryanair. Bloody plane was late arriving in Manchester and had the knockon effect of leaving late, thus arriving in Dublin around 23h00.

Started off on the long trek to passport control, and saw one of the moving walkways cordoned off, but still running. - wtf?

Anyhow, they threw a cordon in front of us just at the end of the walkway and just prior to entering the Passport control chamber. The cordon was lifted after about 5 minutes, at this stage it was about 23h15. Turned the corner only to discover why the cordon had been manned - the place was packed...at that hour of the night on a Sunday???

What's the point in DAA trying to entice more airlines to land in Dublin, when they obviously cannot handle what's already coming in? BTW, every passport booth was manned.

That's an awful time of night to land always. Passport control does be bedlam, wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

WishUWereHere · 27-05-2019 06:55PM

OldMrBrennan83 wrote: »

That's an awful time of night to land always. Passport control does be bedlam, wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

Really? On a Sunday night? Not doubting You for one minute, am amazed that it is so crap at that hour.

What Username Guidelines · 27-05-2019 07:15PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Really? On a Sunday night? Not doubting You for one minute, am amazed that it is so crap at that hour.

Not sure how related it is, but lots of people I worked with in a previous job live in uk and commute over for a few days, would come in Sunday night to be fresher Monday morning. I guess at this time of the year you’ll have charters in on Saturdays and Sunday’s as well.

billie1b · 27-05-2019 07:49PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

Really? On a Sunday night? Not doubting You for one minute, am amazed that it is so crap at that hour.

Thats pretty normal for a Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday night, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturdays are getting just as bad now, not nearly as bad but Wednesdays are catching up fast.

LXFlyer · 27-05-2019 08:48PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

I flew into Dublin from Manchester last night on Ryanair. Bloody plane was late arriving in Manchester and had the knockon effect of leaving late, thus arriving in Dublin around 23h00.

Started off on the long trek to passport control, and saw one of the moving walkways cordoned off, but still running. - wtf?

Anyhow, they threw a cordon in front of us just at the end of the walkway and just prior to entering the Passport control chamber. The cordon was lifted after about 5 minutes, at this stage it was about 23h15. Turned the corner only to discover why the cordon had been manned - the place was packed...at that hour of the night on a Sunday???

What's the point in DAA trying to entice more airlines to land in Dublin, when they obviously cannot handle what's already coming in? BTW, every passport booth was manned.

The entire Dublin based Ryanair fleet return to base roughly over a two hour period which means that if a flight is delayed then you’re inevitably going to have knock-on effects.

By contrast the Aer Lingus fleet return over a far longer period of time which does give more wriggle room.

I’m not sure why you’re surprised about Sunday night flights being busy - that has always been the case, between people returning from a weekend away or as already posted people flying in early to start work the next day.

trellheim · 27-05-2019 09:21PM

Rather than starting an argument here that it is within Dublin Airports gift to solve a lot of this very quickly , Ill agree that most of the FR fleet does indeed return at that time and that time of day should be avoided if at all possible in your planning

LiamaDelta · 27-05-2019 09:42PM

WishUWereHere wrote:

Anyhow, they threw a cordon in front of us just at the end of the walkway and just prior to entering the Passport control chamber. The cordon was lifted after about 5 minutes, at this stage it was about 23h15. Turned the corner only to discover why the cordon had been manned - the place was packed...at that hour of the night on a Sunday???

How long did it take you to get through passport control?

faoiarvok · 27-05-2019 09:58PM

trellheim wrote: »

Rather than starting an argument here that it is within Dublin Airports gift to solve a lot of this very quickly , Ill agree that most of the FR fleet does indeed return at that time and that time of day should be avoided if at all possible in your planning

Isn’t passport control run by the guards/INIS though?

billie1b · 27-05-2019 10:24PM

faoiarvok wrote: »

Isn’t passport control run by the guards/INIS though?

They do, yet they still have only about 3 people on the booths for and average of 5000 people over the course of 2 hours, thats not including BA, Lufty, Cityjet and anyone else who uses T1 at that time.

Stephen Strange · 27-05-2019 10:30PM

billie1b wrote: »

They do, yet they still have only about 3 people on the booths for and average of 5000 people over the course of 2 hours, thats not including BA, Lufty, Cityjet and anyone else who uses T1 at that time.

See, thats just nonsense. As reflected in the posters original post, every booth was full, as is commonplace 90% of the time these days (rostered breaks aside, which are unavoidable). The reality is, the hall is way way too small for the volume of people, which requires holding on the skybridge for h&s reasons. From going down the escalator to passing through Immigration is about 5/10 minutes in a full hall, that's the reality and it's reflected in DAA queue stats.

billie1b · 27-05-2019 10:35PM

Stephen Strange wrote: »

See, thats just nonsense. As reflected in the posters original post, every booth was full, as is commonplace 90% of the time these days (rostered breaks aside, which are unavoidable). The reality is, the hall is way way too small for the volume of people, which requires holding on the skybridge for h&s reasons. From going down the escalator to passing through Immigration is about 5/10 minutes in a full hall, that's the reality and it's reflected in DAA queue stats.

The 6 nights a week I leave work between 10pm and midnight i’ve never once seen the booths 90% full, maybe it’s just me but I always say to myself in my head ‘that queue is disgraceful, you’d think they’d roster more than 3 or 4 people’, I’ve even spoke to work friends about it if leaving together and we always say the same cause we don’t have to queue.

Stephen Strange · 27-05-2019 10:40PM

billie1b wrote: »

The 6 nights a week I leave work between 10pm and midnight i’ve never once seen the booths 90% full, maybe it’s just me but I always say to myself in my head ‘that queue is disgraceful, you’d think they’d roster more than 3 or 4 people’, I’ve even spoke to work friends about it if leaving together and we always say the same cause we don’t have to queue.

I suggest you recount.

Savage_Henry · 27-05-2019 11:25PM

Ive had same situation few times but passport control always moved surprisingly fast

trellheim · 28-05-2019 04:52PM

that's the reality and it's reflected in DAA queue stats.

link please

Stephen Strange · 28-05-2019 06:17PM

trellheim wrote: »

link please

As you've been told before, contact DAA. What's available to some people and what can be shared are 2 different things.

WishUWereHere · 28-05-2019 09:02PM

LiamaDelta wrote: »

How long did it take you to get through passport control?

We were through Passport control within 15 minutes. But that's not my point - DAA are trying to get more traffic through Dublin, but seeing a room full queueing for passport control is not helping their cause. And no, this is not a complaint about the PP controllers, they manned every booth and seemed to get everyone through as quick as possible.

If it is this bad now, what will it be like in 2021 when there is another runway and DAA will do anything to get more flights through then.

Or am I reading this all wrong?

jamo2oo9 · 28-05-2019 09:29PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

We were through Passport control within 15 minutes. But that's not my point - DAA are trying to get more traffic through Dublin, but seeing a room full queueing for passport control is not helping their cause. And no, this is not a complaint about the PP controllers, they manned every booth and seemed to get everyone through as quick as possible.

If it is this bad now, what will it be like in 2021 when there is another runway and DAA will do anything to get more flights through then.

Or am I reading this all wrong?

The DAA have no bearing on passport control. It's down to Immigration.

Stephen Strange · 28-05-2019 09:36PM

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

The DAA have no bearing on passport control. It's down to Immigration.

They do though. The physical space is the issue, which is purely DAA, not INIS. With every booth full and egates open, you will have people backed up on Pier 1 Skybridge.

LiamaDelta · 29-05-2019 10:36AM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

We were through Passport control within 15 minutes. But that's not my point - DAA are trying to get more traffic through Dublin, but seeing a room full queueing for passport control is not helping their cause. And no, this is not a complaint about the PP controllers, they manned every booth and seemed to get everyone through as quick as possible.

If it is this bad now, what will it be like in 2021 when there is another runway and DAA will do anything to get more flights through then.

Or am I reading this all wrong?

One of your original points was 'they obviously cannot handle what's already coming through'. I would say that if you got through in 15 minutes at peak time then they obviously can handle it.

LXFlyer · 29-05-2019 12:20PM

WishUWereHere wrote: »

We were through Passport control within 15 minutes. But that's not my point - DAA are trying to get more traffic through Dublin, but seeing a room full queueing for passport control is not helping their cause. And no, this is not a complaint about the PP controllers, they manned every booth and seemed to get everyone through as quick as possible.

If it is this bad now, what will it be like in 2021 when there is another runway and DAA will do anything to get more flights through then.

Or am I reading this all wrong?

I’m not sure we are going to necessarily see a massive expansion of short haul aircraft based overnight in Dublin with the new runway - it will reduce early morning and late night congestion around the airfield.

The main expansion will be in transatlantic services and probably in more short haul flights during the day.

The main problems re immigration delays happen especially in the pier 1/pier 2 immigration hall late at night when Dublin based Ryanair flights returning to base are delayed, and end up landing even closer together than Ryanair’s tight scheduling already has them.

The hall needs expanding too, don’t get me wrong, but when you have several flights delayed returning together, that will cause problems anywhere.

cw67irl · 29-05-2019 01:55PM

Pier AD hall is due to be expanded with work beginning soon. I have heard 250% size increase but not confirmed. That should help ease the congestion of the immigration hall

Rawr · 29-05-2019 02:07PM

Thinking about contacting DUB to suggest that they update their signage a bit at passport control.
Was on a flight from Oslo over the weekend, and many of the Norwegians I was with were getting confused by the "EU Only" signage at passport control.

EU Only gates tend to include EEA counties too, and this is also the case at DUB, but the LED signage does not reflect this clearly. I even noticed an "EU / EEA" sign printed onto A4 sheets and taped onto windows of many of the booths, suggesting that they've noticed that EEA people might be getting confused.

The following is what I've noticed in many other airports near the EU gates, which are usually marked as "EU / EEA / CH":

Not sure it would make a massive difference with the queues, but would certainly help guide people from Norway, Iceland etc...

Stephen Strange · 29-05-2019 09:21PM

Pier 1/2 Immigration signs have been updated for EU/EEA/CH, still to be done in Pier 3 and Pier 4.

trellheim · 30-05-2019 10:34AM

Those e-gates take passport cards yet ?

Credit Checker Moose · 30-05-2019 01:12PM

trellheim wrote: »

Those e-gates take passport cards yet ?

Nope and they probably never will.

trellheim · 30-05-2019 01:27PM

Vendor knock any money off the price for them not working as spec'd ? They were supposed to support e-ID and passport cards as most here know.

Beechwoodspark · 30-05-2019 01:43PM

Credit Checker Moose wrote: »

Nope and they probably never will.

I used the passport card in the egates last weekend. T1 Ryan air flight home

took approx 15 -20 secs to get threw

Beechwoodspark · 30-05-2019 01:44PM

trellheim wrote: »

Those e-gates take passport cards yet ?

I used my passport card in the egates last weekend

Took me about 15-20 seconds to go threw.

The wife used her standard passport

The DUB Passport/Immigration Queue Thread

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