Travel chaos for Dublin Airport travellers

The mood at Dublin Airport this afternoon was one of anger and confusion as technical problems caused chaos for travellers.

Passengers complained that they were being given very little information about their cancelled and delayed flights, with some resorting to phoning friends and family in a bid to get up-to-date information.

Large queues of passengers looking to reschedule flights snaked around the check -n areas, as people faced the prospect of delayed holidays and cancelled trips.

Aiveen Cooper, from Celbridge, Co Kildare, was travelling to Leeds via Liverpool to attend a Crowded House concert this evening.

"This is my first trip away on my own since I had a baby a few months ago, and I was really looking forward to it. It was my sanity trip!" she said.

"I have two tickets for the concert in my bag; my friend, who lives in Leeds, was meeting me over there. She can't even go because I have the tickets. My flight was supposed to go at 1.45 pm.

"When I got here, it was delayed until 2.15 pm. I was sitting up there at the gate, and the next thing I read on the screen it was cancelled. I queued up at the Ryanair desk from 2 pm until 3pm, and they've put me onto a 5.15 pm flight, but now they're saying it could be two or three hours delayed. If it is, there's no point in me going. I'm due to come back on Friday morning, so if I go out tomorrow, there's no point. I might just rebook it for another time."

Eamonn and Ann Cooney from Blackrock, Co Louth, were due to fly to the East Midlands in England at 2pm today, but have been delayed by several hours, throwing all their travel plans into disarray.

"The latest update is 11.35pm. There's nobody around up at the departures gate to tell us what to do or what not to do. We were sent back down here to the ticket desk, and as you can see from the queue, there was no way could get near them. We were lucky enough to get someone to issue us with new boarding cards," said Mrs Cooney.

"I saw someone from Ryanair, and I grabbed her and said I wasn't moving until we got a new boarding card. I did say to them that because it was 11.30 tonight, we had no one to collect us in East Midlands, and we would expect Ryanair to put us up in a hotel. The girl said she knew nothing but that she didn't think Ryanair would do that, so I really don't know what we're going to do."

A lack of information was adding to frustration, they said.

"There's nobody at the boarding gate at all," said Eamonn Cooney. "One person did say that if flights come on track, we might be one of the first out."

"We could sit until 10 o clock tonight to be told it's cancelled," said Mrs Cooney. "If there had been a representative there to tell you what was going on... As one woman said, they did a runner."

Joe O'Donnell from Swords was due to fly to Faro in Portugal for a 12-day family holiday at 5 pm today, but was informed by Aer Lingus that the flight had been cancelled when he arrived at the airport.

"We were given a phone number and told air traffic control was down. It was a number to ring, or book online. I eventually got through on the phone after about 10 minutes. The next available date for Faro was next Sunday, for two adults and four children. We've now changed to go to Lisbon on Friday at 7.15 am. It's ruined our holiday - we'll have to get from Lisbon down to the Algarve.

"We were here two hours before our departure time to be here on time - it's frustrating. Our holiday is going to be down to 10 days, plus the travel from Lisbon down."

Rachel Doyle was due to fly with Malaga this evening with her family, including her two young children. "I'm fortunate that we're going for seven weeks, so it's not too bad," she said. "I'm hoping we can get a flight out tomorrow. We were just told to get on a queue to reschedule our tickets. We haven't spoken to anyone, end of story.

Although the trip was a seven-week holiday, she pointed out that the delay would have a knock-on effect for arrangements she had made for the family. "We've car hire booked at the other end, so it will affect that. And the children are disappointed," she said.

Other travellers were not as lucky, missing out on their trips entirely. Shane Carragher was travelling to Birmingham with a friend for a day trip. At 3.45 pm he was still in Dublin Airport, queuing at the Ryanair ticket desk to try to get a refund or rebook his flight.

"We were on a day trip and were supposed to fly back tonight at 7 pm. We've been told that we're not getting out. They've only offered us a refund so far or a rescheduled booking for our flight out, but they won't give us one for our flight out, but they won't give us one for our flight home because it hasn't been cancelled yet," he said.

The long queues to rebook tickets were causing chaos at the airport, with some ticket desks having waiting times of more than 90 minutes for passengers.

Bill Lalor, from Tralee, Co Kerry, was supposed to travel to Manchester at 12.15 pm. "We left Tralee this morning at 6 am. My car is parked in the long-term car park. We got here and the flight was delayed half an hour. At that stage, I asked someone and they said they weren't sure what time we were going to be boarding at. When we were put on the plane, we sat on the tarmac for another hour. The captain came on and said there was a problem with the radar. Another 20 minutes passed and we were told to get off the plane, that the flight was cancelled. And here we are."

Mr Lalor joined the queue for the Ryanair ticket desk at 2.30 pm, and at 3.45 pm he was still waiting to rebook his flight.

"At this rate, if I don't get out to Manchester tonight, I'm going to lose my accommodation, and I'll be more or less taking a day off for nothing."

Many of the inconvenienced passengers were complaining about the lack of information at the airport.

Tannoy announcements directing people to the various ticket desks were being made in the check-in area of the airport, but many passengers had already gone through security checks before they discovered their flights would not be leaving on time, if at all.

"I was at the departure gate reading my book when I overheard a woman saying that it was coming up as cancelled on the board. There had been no announcement that the flight was cancelled," said Mrs Cooper. "I asked her, and she had gone and asked someone and been told the flight wasn't going. There was an announcement made later, but that was at 2 pm."

There were similar tales from other passengers, with conflicting information being given to disgruntled travellers. "I asked an airport authority customer service person, who said it was not her problem, to go talk to the airline. I asked the guy in the airline, and he said 'it's not our problem, go talk to the airport'. Nobody's accepting anything," said Mr Lalor.

"There was nobody at the desk to talk to anyone when we arrived," said Ms Doyle. "Now we're on a massive queue with no idea how long we're going to be here."