Airlines Urge Irish Government to Take Immediate Action to Avoid More Scenes of Travel Chaos at Dublin Airport

The group, consisting of American, Delta, United Airlines and Air Canada have warned the Irish government that delays at the airport are damaging travellers’ impression of Ireland. Another complaint was that the airline’s premium business class passengers “are forced to join the general queue” even though they have paid “significant sums” to use the fast-track facilities.

The four carriers have written to Mr Ryan under the umbrella of the Airlines for America (A4A) lobby group based in Washington DC and are asking for a meeting to be arranged to talk about potential solutions to the issues.

In May of this year, only 1 6.7% of Air Canada’s flights out of Dublin Airport were on time while only half of American Airline’s flights left at the original time. Only 23% of Delta Airline’s flights took off at their designated departure slot. Under 27% of United Airline’s aircraft managed to take off on time.

The letter, from Keith Glatz, A4A’s Vice President of International Affairs calls on Mr Ryan and Tourism Minister Catherine Martin to take “appropriate action to manage the increase in passenger volume”.

“We believe this issue will become even more urgent as passenger numbers increase during the peak summer travel season,” he continued.

Between them the US airlines serve 13 destinations from Dublin. Delta expects to handle almost 1,500 arriving and departing passengers a day from Dublin, while United expects close to 1,600 and American almost 2,000. Air Canada says it will handle more than 1,300.

“Without appropriate action to manage the increase in passenger volume, our passengers will continue to experience significant delays and missed connections,” Mr Glatz added.

Emergency measures have now been introduced at Dublin Airport help to avoid any further disruption.