Passengers accept checks but want more information

Passengers affected by major delays at Dublin airport appeared philosophical about the enhanced security measures introduced in recent days, but called for the provision of extra staff and more information.

Ruth Hounslow, travelling to London Gatwick, said she had no problem about the security arrangements.

However, she argued that Dublin Airport Authority needed to recruit additional personnel so the new measures did not cause delays to passengers.

Ms Hounslow said she had been queuing for 30 minutes to get to the security facility, and she had seen a number of people miss their flights.

Helen Hickey and Frances Tomkins, travelling to Kent, said that heightened security systems at airports were "the way of the world" now.

They suggested "there was no other way" to protect the travelling public.

However, they said that passengers should have been provided with more information by the authorities at Dublin airport. Passengers were particularly concerned at a lack of information on whether flights would be held by airlines until all those scheduled to travel had passed through security and arrived at the departure gates.

Anne and Bob Horner from Croydon, travelling with their children Ollie aged eight and Luke aged five, said "one would have expected that more staff would have been on hand to clear the queues".

They also said that they would have liked to have had more information from Dublin Airport Authority.

Belgian Eric deVos, who lives in Dublin but who was travelling to Brussels with his two nieces, said it had taken them 45 minutes to travels 30 metres around the concourse of the airport.

Dublin airport sources said that at one stage there were "several hundred people" in two separate queues trying to access the security channels. The queues were snaking around the terminal building.

The queues had begun to diminish by yesterday afternoon.