Dublin Airport Authority the worst airport manager in Europe?

[patslatt]

Eamon Dunphy has been very critical of Dublin's "third world airport" for many years. anecdotal evidence suggests things haven't changed.

According to a friend,his son who started a career as a pilot in recent years says that DAA is the worst airport management in Europe. The pilot mentioned three incidents of poor management. In the first,an American airliner was inexplicably left waiting for about four hours for clearance on take-off. In the second,snow cleared from a runaway was dumped carelessly in piles on another runaway open for emergency landings. In the third,the French national rugby team was kept waiting about two hours for a platform to be brought to allow them off the plane. Maybe they thought it was a conspiracy to unsettle them before the game!

When my friend asked an experienced pilot,a neighbour, what he thought of DAA,the pilot confirmed the friend's son opinion that DAA is the worst manager in Europe.

[cyberianpan]

Whilst the above is highly anecdotal objective analysis would be tough as there would be few airports readily comparable to Dublin

My opinion is that for its size it is pretty bad - obviously Heathrow is a lot less pleasant - but Heathrow is very large & complex

We would note that there was a huge element of "jobs for the boys" in the DAA/Aer Rianta - and the appointees there always seemed more political & less qualified than other semi states.

cYp

[Horace Horse]

It's a house of horrors. A simple point. I have asked in person and in writing that some seats be provided for people who have just come through security. It's a disgrace to see elderly ladies hopping around on one foot because the slobs who run Dublin Airport security couldn't be bothered providing somewhere for passengers to collect their things, put on their shoes etc. Despite several requests, nothing has been done.

Another matter. It's filthy. Did anyone ever see the loud-mouthed security staff take steps to clean the area where everyone has to walk thru, most of us with our shoes off? I haven't.

What do they do with the liquids they confiscate, by the way? Does anyone seriously believe they throw the contents of a sealed bottle of Jack Daniels down the drain?

I won't bother talking about the filthy toilets, or the fact that at 8 a.m they still haven't cleaned the drinks etc. from the day before.

The airport is the preserve of Fianna Fail hacks, and is a good illustration of the way that outfit has screwed our country.

Remember, WE passengers are paying for all of this lousy service.

Just like we have paid with our taxes for the Fianna Fail vermin to ruin our country.

[Schuhart]

In fairness, I know I'll have an uphill struggle to argue this, but I actually wonder how much of the problem is the airport management and how much is the official dithering over expanding the size of the airport so that its only now, as the tides going out, that we actually see the second terminal going up.

I've been a fairly regular user over the past few years, and generally the problem as I see it has simply been trying to move a large amount of people through a very small space. The increase in passengers was foreseen. It was just we'd all that dithering between the second terminal being private, or being cheap and cheerful for Ryanair, or meeting the vital needs of SIPTU. In that context, airport management cannot just tell the politicians to go ********************e.

They actually do manage the queues, and I've found that you generally do get through the place reasonably quickly. Its cramped, you'll understand I'm not pretending it isn't. But it would strike me that its actually an achievement for the place not to just collapse into gridlock (although I believe the GNIB have been doing there best to do that by understaffing the passport booths on occassion).

But I've certainly experienced lengthy queues in other, more palatial, airports abroad and there has been no evidence of local management taking any interest or attempting to prevent the queue becoming a scrum.

[hiding behind a poster]

In the first,an American airliner was inexplicably left waiting for about four hours for clearance on take-off.

I think its safe to say that never happened. Clearance for take-off is given after the aircraft has pushed back from stand, started engines, and taxied to the holding point for the active runway. The notion that air traffic control (who are not part of the DAA, incidentally), either would or could just leave that aircraft sitting there for 4 hours, without anyone else noticing, is ridiculous. You'll have to go back to your mate and get some facts.

[patslatt]

I think its safe to say that never happened. Clearance for take-off is given after the aircraft has pushed back from stand, started engines, and taxied to the holding point for the active runway. The notion that air traffic control (who are not part of the DAA, incidentally), either would or could just leave that aircraft sitting there for 4 hours, without anyone else noticing, is ridiculous. You'll have to go back to your mate and get some facts.

The aircraft definitely waited for hours as it was still there after the friend's son had flown to the UK and back. Maybe the explanation is in the technicality in your statement "Clearance for take-off is given after the aircraft has pushed back from stand". Maybe the aircraft hadn't pushed back from the stand.

[patslatt]

In fairness, I know I'll have an uphill struggle to argue this, but I actually wonder how much of the problem is the airport management and how much is the official dithering over expanding the size of the airport so that its only now, as the tides going out, that we actually see the second terminal going up.

I've been a fairly regular user over the past few years, and generally the problem as I see it has simply been trying to move a large amount of people through a very small space. The increase in passengers was foreseen. It was just we'd all that dithering between the second terminal being private, or being cheap and cheerful for Ryanair, or meeting the vital needs of SIPTU. In that context, airport management cannot just tell the politicians to go ********************e.

They actually do manage the queues, and I've found that you generally do get through the place reasonably quickly. Its cramped, you'll understand I'm not pretending it isn't. But it would strike me that its actually an achievement for the place not to just collapse into gridlock (although I believe the GNIB have been doing there best to do that by understaffing the passport booths on occassion).

But I've certainly experienced lengthy queues in other, more palatial, airports abroad and there has been no evidence of local management taking any interest or attempting to prevent the queue becoming a scrum.

What do you mean by "meeting the vital needs of Siptu"?

[Schuhart]

What do you mean by "meeting the vital needs of Siptu"?

Apologies, this was an oblique reference to SIPTU's opposition to the second terminal being privately run.

SIPTU said today it strongly favoured a second terminal built and operated by the Dublin Airport Authority. It added that it was only in the absence of a project by the authority that the union would support a proposition by the McEvaddy brothers for a privately-funded terminal on lands beside the airport at Huntstown.

The union added that this would also only be on the clear agreement that the McEvaddy project would not affect the quality of jobs at the new terminal. SIPTU President Jack O'Connor has written to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, supporting a second terminal run by the authority.

In his letter, Mr O'Connor acknowledged that the aviation branch of the union has engaged in exploratory discussions with Ulick McEvaddy. But Mr O'Connor said the 'most sensible' option would be for the union to become involved in the authority's project.

I was really just trying to remind folk of the political environment that prevented investment being made in the airport.

[lostexpectation]

patslatt IS michael o leary, i knew it

[hiding behind a poster]

The aircraft definitely waited for hours as it was still there after the friend's son had flown to the UK and back. Maybe the explanation is in the technicality in your statement "Clearance for take-off is given after the aircraft has pushed back from stand". Maybe the aircraft hadn't pushed back from the stand.

It definitely hadn't pushed back from stand. But if the passengers and crew were on board, and there were no baggage discrepancies, then there's really only two possibilities for such a delay:

1) Technical problem with the aircraft - I presume you're not suggesting an aircraft should depart with a known technical fault, and presumably you'll also defer to the professional expertise of the crew and engineering staff on that subject?

2) A slot time with a four-hour delay - however, slot times aren't applied to transatlantic departures, only to those landing at other European airports.

So, why are you suggesting the aircraft was delayed for four hours?