Worried passengers faced chaos at Dublin Airport today as stringent new security checks left massive queues.
In the early part of the day some passengers missed their flights - with people reporting waiting times of up to two-hours to pass through the security check points at the departure area.
One worried flyer, Jane McCrum and her friend, said they would probably miss their flight to London as boarding for it was closing in five-minutes, and they had not even joined the queues after checking-in.
She said: "They had no warnings of the lengthy queues."
The lines had eased off by afternoon with passengers reporting queuing for up to 40-minutes for security after already checking-in for their flights.
A spokesman for the Dublin Airport Authority said the reason for the delays was the enhanced security procedures following an EU security audit at the airport last week.
Officials from the European Civil Aviation Conference and the Department of Transport exposed a lapse in security after they managed to carry a replica bomb and knives through checks.
"It has been a combination of longer than average waiting times and the higher volume of traffic, including charter traffic, passing through on a Sunday morning," the spokesman explained.
He said: "We can take it that some people did (miss their flights), and we regret any inconvenience to passengers and we thank them for their cooperation and patience."
The spokesman report that the queues were at their worst from 10.30am to 1pm. He added: "I don't have the exact time but a lot of people were waiting at least an hour."
The authority advises passengers to arrive at least 90-minutes before the scheduled flight time.