Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to update the House on the recent travel disruption at Dublin Airport and contingency planning in place for the coming weeks. We experienced the first snowfall of the year in Dublin last Thursday night. While all surfaces at Dublin Airport were pre-emptively treated through the night and were fully open and operational on Friday and throughout the weekend, unfortunately, passengers were adversely impacted by flight cancellations and delays due to the conditions overall at the time. The role of the Dublin Airport Authority, DAA, is to maintain runways, taxiways, aprons and stands to facilitate aircraft movements . The DAA has advised me that it is well equipped to do this with all the necessary machinery available. Airlines and their ground handling service providers are responsible for de-icing aircraft. The DAA has advised that it put in place all the necessary preparation and work to ensure the airport remained operational throughout this exceptionally cold weather event. The DAA also advised that Dublin Airport's snow and ice teams worked throughout the night to ensure runways, taxiways, aprons and stands were fully operational. However, I understand that ice clearance was a challenge for the whole airport community on Friday due to the severity of the conditions. Some airlines experienced significant delays and disruptions to their flight schedules because of difficulties they had in de-icing their aircraft. I understand difficulties were also experienced at times in clearing ice from aprons and stands at the airport.

I commend the continuing hard work of staff at the airport, and all those who operate within the airport ecosystem, who worked throughout the night and recent days to ensure the flights that did take off were able to do so safely. Safety must always be the top priority.

As I mentioned, airlines and their ground handling service providers are responsible for de-icing aircraft. There have been between seven to nine de-icing units in operation at Dublin Airport by the relevant service providers over recent days. It is ultimately the responsibility of the airlines and their ground handling agents to ensure they have sufficient staff and resources in place to deal with demand. Some airlines flew in de-icing crews from other airports to bolster their capacity on Saturday and I understand these have remained on-site.

The weather on Thursday night into Friday morning resulted in very high humidity, some precipitation and below-zero temperatures, which presented a particular challenge in respect of ground ice control and de-icing aircraft. Airlines typically get over an hour of effectiveness from a de-icing application of Glycol, although in some cases on Friday this was as low as 20 minutes. This created a significant and unusual level of demand on airlines and their de-icing contractors for repeat or enhanced de-icing and was the primary contributor to delays and cancellations on Friday and, to a lesser extent, on Saturday. Over the weekend, the major disruption experienced by passengers alleviated somewhat and the majority of first-wave departures from Dublin Airport on Sunday morning took off without any undue delays.

It is worth noting the disruption to passengers was not confined to Dublin Airport. The weather over Thursday and Friday was not as severe in the west of the country and while our regional airports remained open and operational, they were impacted to some extent by issues at other airports, which resulted in some delays to inbound flights and cancellations. Stansted and Gatwick Airports had to close temporarily to clear snow from their runways, and yellow warnings of ice, fog and snow have been in place for much of the UK. The DAA has advised that the delays and cancellations experienced by passengers since Sunday have largely been driven by weather and subsequent flow restrictions at UK airports.

As Senators are aware, the national emergency co-ordination group, NECG, met on Sunday to provide details on weather conditions expected this week, to review current and potential impacts across all sectors and to understand the mitigation and contingency measures in place. Representatives from the DAA and Shannon Airport have attended the daily NECG briefings and have provided regular updates to the NECG and my Department on operations at our State airports.

I remind Senators that EU Regulation No. 261 of 2004 sets out the rights of air passengers and the resulting obligation on airlines in the event of cancellation, denied boarding and flight delay. In summary, in respect to the cancellation of flights, the regulation provides that where a flight is cancelled, the air carrier must offer the passenger the choice of: rerouting as soon as possible after the original departure time; rerouting at a later date; or a refund of the cost of the unused flight ticket. If the passenger chooses to be rerouted as soon as possible, the airline should offer care and assistance, which should include meals and refreshments; hotel accommodation where an overnight stay becomes necessary; and transport between the hotel accommodation and the airport. If an airline does not provide care and assistance, passengers should make their own reasonable arrangements and retain all receipts in the process. Passengers are advised to then submit copies of these receipts to their airline for reimbursement. In Ireland, the Commission for Aviation Regulation, CAR, is the designated body in the context of the enforcement of the regulation. The CAR is proactive in its engagement with airlines on matters relating to the application of passenger rights.

My officials and I continue to engage regularly with the DAA in respect of operational readiness at the airport this Christmas. The DAA is particularly focused on passenger throughput times at security screening given the busy holiday period ahead. Earlier this morning, I met with the DAA's interim CEO and senior management who updated me on Dublin Airport's readiness for the expected busy Christmas period. The plan is focused on ensuring lane supply meets passenger demand on an hour-by-hour basis in each terminal. The DAA also has several contingency measures in place in the event that they may be required.

Recruitment and retention of security airport search unit, ASU, officers remains a key area of concern for the DAA. However, it has advised that it continues to recruit - as it has done continuously over the past 12 months - for a number of roles at Dublin Airport. The DAA's concerted recruitment campaign included its recent jobs fair, which attracted more than 800 potential candidates. The DAA is focused on generating a strong pipeline of potential candidates for the roles available to enable the authority to meet both the current and future needs of the business. Over the year, following a concerted recruitment campaign in 2021, an additional 300 security officers are now employed at Dublin Airport. Currently, the security ASU headcount is 645, which means that the DAA is at 90% of staffing levels compared with the same period in 2019. There are also more than 100 other security staff who work at the airport's vehicle control posts.

On passenger wait times at security, I am pleased to advise that, since the summer, Dublin Airport has experienced vast improvements in security queue times. The DAA has advised that, last month, 90% of all passengers queued for 20 minutes or less and 98% queued for 30 minutes or less. In total, since June, almost 17 million passengers have been processed through the airport without any significant security related challenges. I assure the House that I will continue to engage with the DAA as we welcome those arriving in Dublin Airport for the Christmas period and facilitate those who are departing from the airport to reconnect with loved ones over the festive period.Collectively, our focus will be on ensuring all passengers using the airport have as seamless a journey as possible at this busy time of year.