Family missed Ryanair flight due to “Silent Airport”

wench · 16-02-2020 7:44pm

If she was so zoned out that she didn't notice a plane load of people boarding right in front of her, would a semi-audible announcement really have helped?

Credit Checker Moose · 16-02-2020 7:50pm

Dublin is definitely not a silent airport.

Quazzie · 16-02-2020 8:05pm

CelticRambler wrote: »

Any chance you could tell us which airport has "gone dark" ? I think it's pushing things for an airport to claim that they're trying to combat noise pollution by not making announcements within a sound-proofed building. Not having jet engines in use outside would be more effective! :pac:

Maybe the doggers that park up beside the run way were giving out about announcements knocking them off their rhythm?

Baby01032012 · 16-02-2020 8:10pm

Credit Checker Moose wrote: »

Dublin is definitely not a silent airport.

I only go by what my wife was told by ryanair staff. I’ll confirm with the DAA though.

Baby01032012 · 16-02-2020 8:12pm

wench wrote: »

If she was so zoned out that she didn't notice a plane load of people boarding right in front of her, would a semi-audible announcement really have helped?

I wasn’t there so I don’t know the circumstances. There may not have been large number flying to Kviv. This could have gone unnoticed if large number of people waiting for a different flight from same gate.

Caranica · 16-02-2020 8:46pm

Baby01032012 wrote: »

I only go by what my wife was told by ryanair staff. I’ll confirm with the DAA though.

Shouldn't make any difference. It was your wife's responsibility to present at the boarding desk during boarding times. It's not the airline or the airport's duty to summon them to the desk.

Baby01032012 · 16-02-2020 10:18pm

Caranica wrote: »

Shouldn't make any difference. It was your wife's responsibility to present at the boarding desk during boarding times. It's not the airline or the airport's duty to summon them to the desk.

I disagree. Could be breach of contract... ticket purchased checked in online...luggage dropped in appropriate time...at the gate queuing. Airline made no attempt to locate or even notify passenger gate was closing.

When she approached desk she was told all paper work had been done and all passengers were on board.

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 16-02-2020 10:46pm

Baby01032012 wrote: »

I only go by what my wife was told by ryanair staff. I’ll confirm with the DAA though.

I can confirm Dublin is not a silent airport. Your wife is lying to you, probably in an attempt to cover up her stupidity.

Muahahaha · 17-02-2020 12:14am

Hoboo wrote: »

And I've been in Dublin departures in that area where there's maybe 8 gates in a dead end, it's bedlam. Queues to each gate completely mixed with people from different flights, I could imagine how difficult it would be with young children in tow, I've had to push and shove to get through to make a flight, and I'm a big lad.

Can't see an issue with making an announcement, doesn't make sense to me why they wouldn't if a passenger is checked in and not on board.

I think you're talking about the dreaded Pier D and yeah it can be absolute bedlam there, especially early in the morning. Last time I flew from Pier D there was queues everywhere with overlapping flights.

In those situations you just have to be assertive and go up to the gate and ask what is happening, last time I was there before there was a queue for the flight coming in after my one was departing and Id say a lot of people would have assumed it was their flight but the queue wasnt released for boarding yet. Easy mistake to make and I nearly made it myself as I went up to the gate and they were closing it for my flight literally that minute.

Baby01032012 · 17-02-2020 7:08am

Kairo Hundreds Venus wrote: »

I can confirm Dublin is not a silent airport. Your wife is lying to you, probably in an attempt to cover up her stupidity.

Gee that’s a bit strong. I’ve no doubt staff told her that.

firemansam4 · 17-02-2020 12:08pm

As someone who has been through an airport with small children on a few occasions, I can understand how your wife could have been distracted with them and maybe she had her eye on a particular queue seeing if it will move and not realising it was the wrong queue.
Easy enough mistake to make I think. lesson to learn is not to rely on any announcements and keep an eye on the departure screen often for any updates.

Nijmegen · 17-02-2020 3:36pm

Was it pier D, OP? The highest numbered gates downstairs. I can see it happening there tho it still remains your responsibility to check the boards (at that stage you have both general info boards and the specific boards of the individual gates to look at). Harsh lesson.

Hoboo · 18-02-2020 12:57pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

I think you're talking about the dreaded Pier D and yeah it can be absolute bedlam there.
In those situations you just have to be assertive and go up to the gate and ask what is happening

I agree, and I did, and I do.

But try that with young kids and carry on bags (which you'll need with young kids) in tow, trying to squeeze them by adults who can't see them due to their height, and will barely budge an inch for fear you're skipping the queue.

That Pier is a F888ing joke, be some craic if there was a fire/bomb or similar emergency.

As for Silent Airports !!! Stop the earth NOW, I want off. Has everyone suddenly become ultra sensitive to "Plane departing to Helsinki now boarding at Gate 117, could all remaining passengers make their way to the desk". My ears are bleeding just thinking about it.

'Noise pollution' is a bit rich coming from the aviation industry to talk about pollution. An announcement is not pollution FFS. Maybe cancel all those drunk scumbags at the back of the plane.

Let me suggest this.......airlines like to double book seats to ensure planes are full.......by 'assisting' passengers like the OP's wife to miss their flights, they can earn double for a seat. Anyone on standby also gets a seat. Cynical, sure. But in similar vein to common customer focused practices already in the industry.

SAMTALK · 18-02-2020 1:24pm

For all those perfect people on here I hope you never make a mistake

Jeez some of you need to take a chill pill and stop with the snide remarks.

Op asked a question. Wife made a mistake but no need for the comments

Travelling with 2 kids is not easy and Dublin Airport is not easy for those who are not seasoned travellers like some of you

18-02-2020 1:40pm

the day of expecting to get the "would passenger x please go to gate yz as your plane is leaving" announcement over the airport address system is long gone.

not sure if Ryanair ever bothered to do this in the last 20 years tbh as since they changed to the low-cost model soon after inception they have not been a service airline.

with Ryanair everyone needs to know the "Ryanair rules" around everything from baggage to check-in and play by them and your life is easier as a result.

it's a bummer to have it happen to you but you won't have any comeback unfortunately.

Ashleigh1986 · 18-02-2020 1:40pm

That's why I love to travel.... ALONE .
If your ever going on holidays watch people especially couples .
Sweet Jesus I would kill most of the other halves .
Drama / drama / drama ....
As for families .... Holidays are supposed to be for relaxing ..
Constant drama from the minute they arrive at the airport ,and heaven forbid if your staying in the same hotel as Sharon and her family .

Charles Babbage · 18-02-2020 1:45pm

The only observation I would make is that the screens at gates are not large enough. They should be much larger so they can be easily read from the end of the queue or from across the corridor. Everyone has a bigger screen in their living room!

CrankyHaus · 18-02-2020 1:50pm

If what the OP says is true, that his wife queued at the gate ON TIME for her flight which left without her, then Ryanair has a case to answer.

Expecting people to fight their way through multi flight queues created by airlines wanting to cram more flights into less space is unreasonable and could be easily addressed by simple measures by the Airline.

kickfacer · 18-02-2020 1:56pm

If it's any consolation OP, be sure to claim your airport and departure taxes back from the airline.

pc7 · 18-02-2020 2:22pm

kickfacer wrote: »

If it's any consolation OP, be sure to claim your airport and departure taxes back from the airline.

I don't think you can with Ryanair (if you can I think the 'admin' fee would wipe it out), open to correction.

Strumms · 18-02-2020 3:12pm

I’ve been to airports in the Uk which had boarding for two flights from one gate, trying to remember but I think it may have been Edinburgh, confusion reigned as regular boarding for one flight and priority only for the other were happening simultaneously, some people were being turned back in the confusion blocking others , it was chaos.

charlietheminxx · 18-02-2020 3:16pm

If it was Pier D, I can easily see how it happened. The queues end up all intermingled. It's a shame OP and it would have been nice if there had been an announcement but I don't think they're obligatory and there isn't much you can do about it now.

AAAAAAAAA · 18-02-2020 3:20pm

glasso wrote: »

the day of expecting to get the "would passenger x please go to gate yz as your plane is leaving" announcement over the airport address system is long gone.

not sure if Ryanair ever bothered to do this in the last 20 years tbh as since they changed to the low-cost model soon after inception they have not been a service airline.

I am fairly certain that at least up to a year or so ago they were calling out names at pier D

Strumms · 18-02-2020 3:37pm

charlietheminxx wrote: »

If it was Pier D, I can easily see how it happened. The queues end up all intermingled. It's a shame OP and it would have been nice if there had been an announcement but I don't think they're obligatory and there isn't much you can do about it now.

I think where there is ‘potential’ for confusion, best practices from the outside looking in would be for the airline or handling agent to be suitably staffed to have a ‘Q runner’ type situation about 3 or 4 minutes before the gate is due to close where they go the length of the assembled Q looking for any remaining people for the closing flight and instructing them to skip to the top and get on the aircraft.

ebbsy · 18-02-2020 5:58pm

Get to the airport really early is your only man.

HeidiHeidi · 18-02-2020 6:01pm

ebbsy wrote: »

Get to the airport really early is your only man.

Did you even read the opening post? Literally in the second line he says they were there 90 mins early!

Baby01032012 · 18-02-2020 7:22pm

While it was ultimately my wife’s fault I sent a non blaming email to both the DAA and Ryanair explaining what happened.

DAA response Below...names removed

Good afternoon XXXXXX

I refer to your email below and wish to thank you for contacting daa with your feedback. I am very sorry to hear that your wife and children had a less than positive experience while travelling through Dublin airport and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused. To advise, the airlines and handling agents are responsible for the boarding and disembarking process for their flights at Dublin airport. Information for each flight is displayed on the relevant flight information screen at each boarding gate and information for the flight is updated by the airline or handling agent accordingly. In relation to the comment made by the airline staff regarding Dublin airport being a “silent airport” I wish to advise we do operate a silent airport policy however this is more so in relation to passenger paging and public announcements and I can advise that the airlines and handling agents do use the PA system to make call announcements for the flights, however this is not something they are obliged to do and it is carried out at their discretion.

If a passenger has not presented themselves in sufficient time for boarding the aircraft then the airline or handling agent will offload their baggage from the aircraft prior to the aircraft departing. For further assistance I would advise that you contact Ryanair directly in relation to this.

Apologies I am unable to be of any assistance and I do sincerely hope that any future journeys are more positive.

Kind regards

XXXXXX

Dublin Airport

T: +353-(0)1-XXXXXXX

19-02-2020 8:53am

Mr.S wrote: »

Well that’s not true, you regularly hear Ryanair flights call passengers by name when the flight is about to close. Probably because they’ve checked in with bags and would delay the flight further to remove the bags.

Well didn't "regularly" happen in this case did it?

average_runner · 19-02-2020 8:56am

glasso wrote: »

Well didn't "regularly" happen in this case did it?

They always announce when a flight is boarding in all my years of flying this is something that happens.

And they do it more than once

19-02-2020 9:04am

average_runner wrote: »

They always announce when a flight is boarding in all my years of flying this is something that happens.

And they do it more than once

The point was about calling specific people on the flight, not general boarding announcements.

# reading comprehension

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 19-02-2020 9:05am

glasso wrote: »

Well didn't "regularly" happen in this case did it?

We have no proof that it didn’t

19-02-2020 9:09am

Kairo Hundreds Venus wrote: »

We have no proof that it didn’t

That is the op's point, that it wasn't. Taking him at his word or rather his wife's word.

Jimjay · 19-02-2020 9:30am

ebbsy wrote: »

Get to the airport really early is your only man.

But most airports i have been to recently, specially for ryanair, don't actually display the gate until 20-30 mins before departure. So unless you guess the flight will leave from the same gate as the last time you took it, turning up really early will mean sitting around waiting for the screen to update the gate info. (Or being dragged around the shops). Although burger king in dublin terminal 2 takes about 45 minutes so thats a good way to kill time.

Caranica · 19-02-2020 9:40am

Gates in Dublin display at least an hour before departure on the screens but significantly before that on the Dublin airport app. Save your flight on the app and it will send you push notifications when boarding starts.

ebbsy · 19-02-2020 9:41am

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

Did you even read the opening post? Literally in the second line he says they were there 90 mins early!

Did I say they didnt get there early.

Johnny Sausage · 19-02-2020 9:42am

Caranica wrote: »

Gates in Dublin display at least an hour before departure on the screens but significantly before that on the Dublin airport app. Save your flight on the app and it will send you push notifications when boarding starts.

yeah was just gonna say this, the app is actually really handy

Jimjay · 19-02-2020 9:43am

Caranica wrote: »

Gates in Dublin display at least an hour before departure on the screens but significantly before that on the Dublin airport app. Save your flight on the app and it will send you push notifications when boarding starts.

Maybe im mistaken then. Maybe i get there earlier than i though as im always waiting for the gate to be announced

HeidiHeidi · 19-02-2020 11:04am

ebbsy wrote: »

Did I say they didnt get there early.

You might as well have said "make sure to have a good breakfast before you leave the house", for all your post had to do with the OP though!

chooseusername · 19-02-2020 11:23am

I book the £5 midweek flights from luton or stansted to cork or kerry early.
at least 3 times in the last year I did not fly on a booked flight.
(change of mind or circumstance)
Once I had even checked in for a flight.
I didn't cancel the booking or notify Ryanair
as I believed that as I had not presented at the gate in time
they were happy to travel without my 13 stone in C 13.
I'm sure there are plenty like me , so they are probably well used to no-shows.

Stark · 19-02-2020 11:30am

True, checked in online is meaningless. Though if there's luggage checked in, you would imagine it's more hassle for them to take the luggage off the plane than it is to do a check to see if the passenger is in the boarding area. Though it being Ryanair, they've probably done the maths on whether the taxes they get to keep on your behalf are worth more than the time spent taking the bag off.

VG31 · 19-02-2020 11:32am

chooseusername wrote: »

I'm sure there are plenty like me , so they are probably well used to no-shows.

In this case they had checked bags so were clearly in the airport and not no-shows.

ebbsy · 19-02-2020 12:44pm

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

You might as well have said "make sure to have a good breakfast before you leave the house", for all your post had to do with the OP though!

Really.

Absolutely pointless comment.

Baby01032012 · 19-02-2020 3:13pm

ebbsy wrote: »

Really.

Absolutely pointless comment.

Well to be fair your comment on go to airport early in order to catch a flight was pretty pointless to the situation outlined.

Meeoow · 19-02-2020 8:29pm

I saw this happening last year in gates 115, 116, 117 and 118 I think they are numbered. A family were standing in the queue assuming they were at the right gate. Down there, if the queue is big, then it goes outside of the circle area and into the corridor. So you have no way of knowing that you might be in the wrong queue. They missed their flight. It can easily happen.

holly8 · 19-02-2020 9:56pm

Hercule Poirot wrote: »

I went through Dublin airport last week and I'm certain I heard a few announcements, as I said earlier I have trouble making out what they are saying but they were definitely there

Just checked with the lady of the house and she's certain she heard announcements calling people for flights and announcing gate openings

I've definitely heard announcements over PA there this evening

Muahahaha · 19-02-2020 10:51pm

Hoboo wrote: »

That Pier is a F888ing joke, be some craic if there was a fire/bomb or similar emergency.

Yeah Pier D is a farce when it is busy, Im not sure what the total amount of gates is down in the pit but it is often uncomfortably packed. If there are 5 flights departing around the same time thats 1,000 odd people you've down there jostling in very limited space.

I might be wrong but I always get the impression Pier D was built at a time when demand for low cost flying had exploded and Ryanair were demanding more gates to service more routes. The DAA needed a quick fix so just slapped on Pier D in a hurry even though the space down there is completely inadequate for the volume of people transmitting through it. A mate of mine refers to Pier D as Balbriggan airport as the long walk to it after security feels closer to there than than it does to Swords :pac:

Charles Babbage wrote: »

The only observation I would make is that the screens at gates are not large enough. They should be much larger so they can be easily read from the end of the queue or from across the corridor. Everyone has a bigger screen in their living room!

Thats a good point and not only are the screens small but the type face of the destination is relatively small too. You've to go within a few metres to be sure of whats on the screen, it really should be a lot bigger so can be seen from a distance by everyone.

Stark · 19-02-2020 11:07pm

holly8 wrote: »

I've definitely heard announcements over PA there this evening

Yeah there's defintely announcements. The"silent airport" thing sounds like something to cover their asses as the announcements aren't guaranteed, especially if the airport is busy with a lot of flights departing. Bit like telling people they need to be at the airport two hours before their flight to cover their asses if there are holdups at security/baggage check-in.

dartboardio · 19-02-2020 11:20pm

She missed the flight, pity and I'm sure she'll know to take extra caution next time..

As for Dublin Airport being a silent airport, not a hope!

Stark · 19-02-2020 11:32pm

dartboardio wrote: »

She missed the flight, pity and I'm sure she'll know to take extra caution next time..

Good to see that 7 pages in, this thread can still deliver fresh insights.

un5byh7sqpd2x0 · 19-02-2020 11:36pm

I’m flying on Friday morning, I’d better leave for the airport now to be sure.

Family missed Ryanair flight due to “Silent Airport”

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