Dublin Airport not ruling out a “flight cap” amid chaos

Pure chaos.

Irish holiday-goers could be in for even more hassle at Dublin Airport as there is now a risk daa will introduce a flight cap. The executive of the Dublin Airport Authority has said that they could introduce a flight cap if they are unable to cope with passenger numbers, limiting the number of planes coming in or out of the airport. Since international travel has resumed, Dublin Airport has seen chaos when it comes to security and check-in delays and is still struggling with staff shortages, as are other airports in Europe. Airports like London’s Gatwick and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have already introduced a restriction on the number of flights as a way to allow the airport to run more smoothly during the summer season. Daa chief executive Dalton Philips said: “We are working hard to avoid the types of restrictive measures introduced in many international airports over recent weeks, albeit risks remain, and we continue to monitor developments on an hourly basis.” [caption id="attachment_557794" align="alignnone" width="600"] Photograph: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie[/caption] This comes after more than 1,000 passengers missed their flights last month due to extreme security delays. Addressing the situation on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Kevin Cullinane, who is the head of operations for the Dublin Airport Authority (daa) offered an apology to those that were affected. He said: "At this stage we estimate over 1,000 passengers ... we will be doing a final tally with all our airline partners and customers again this morning to ascertain the final number. "But certainly at this stage, it’s well over 1,000 passengers, and we unreservedly apologise." Mr Cullinane said that "absenteeism" impacted the situation yesterday, and that the airport is operating on "very fine margins". He added: "Yesterday morning when we opened security in terminal one and terminal two, we clearly didn't have enough security lanes open due to resourcing challenges, and at the moment any absenteeism impacts on our ability to operate lanes."