THE OFTEN chaotic scenes at Dublin airport in the middle of summer were not evident early yesterday, but with the number of flight delays growing longer by the hour, the potential for confusion increased.
By 10am, the airport had an air of business as usual - the mild fluster of folks going on holiday combined with the head-down, no-nonsense approach of those heading on business trips. In the departures area, the queues were unusually short and orderly.
Customer service staff stood by. One was overheard saying: "It's not even busy anywhere."
About a dozen departing flights on the board showed delays of 15 to 45 minutes. A Centralwings flight to Gdansk in Poland due to depart at 8.30am still had not left Dublin by mid-afternoon. Nearly all arrivals had delays of 15 to 45 minutes. A Flightline flight from Napoli due at 2.45pm was at least two and a half hours late.
Lesley Burdon from New Zealand had just spent three weeks on holiday in Ireland and was travelling to Manchester for two days before heading home.
Initial information given to Ms Burdon suggested her flight was on time, she said. However, she later discovered it had been cancelled. "It would have been a big problem for us if we had been delayed at the other end of the trip," she said. "We had important family business to attend to." Martha Quinlan, from Killeshin, Co Carlow, planned to travel to Barcelona with Ryanair on Wednesday with her husband and two children, but the flight was also cancelled. They returned to Carlow and drove back to Dublin yesterday, where they booked a flight to Madrid that was due to leave at 2.25pm, but which eventually took off at 4.17pm.
"We aren't too bad . . . But I saw a lot of young people and non-nationals, a lot of young people with no money and onward flights," Ms Quinlan said.
Ms Quinlan said she believed Ryanair had been "appalling" in its handling of the delays. "There were no phonelines and their internet service was down all day. I rang Aer Lingus yesterday because we have return flights with them and I was able to get through within two minutes."
Others travelling included young athletes with the Olympian Gymnastics club from Templeogue, Dublin, who are competing at a festival in the south of France. Jenny Carr, who was supervising the gymnasts, said she believed the flight would leave on time. It left within 15 minutes of its scheduled time.
A Dublin Airport Authority spokeswoman said people were coping "as long as they know they are going to make their flight".
Dublin airport: slowly getting back on schedule
Dublin airport was operating at 80 per cent of capacity yesterday, which the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said was sufficient to meet demand during most of the day. Twenty arrivals and 20 departures passed through the airport every hour yesterday, and not the maximum of 25. Yesterday's delays were not as severe as those of the previous two days. All major airlines advise those with confirmed reservations for this weekend to get to the airport in time for their scheduled departure.
Aer Lingus passengers can find up-to-date information at www.aerlingus.comor through the Customer Contact Centre at 0818-365044 (from the Republic) or 00353-1-8868690 (from outside the Republic). Ryanair updates are available at www.ryanair.comor 0818-303030.