Dublin Airport workers are so overwhelmed with panicked travellers arriving early that their luggage might be left behind, they are warned.
A source told us that hundreds of passengers may see their bags left behind when their planes take off.
Ageing X-ray machines, carousel belts that need to be repaired and limited storage space are causing the problems, it is claimed.
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Passengers from a flight from Canada were left waiting three hours at Dublin Airport for their suitcases on Monday.
The source told us: “This is only the start of it.”
And he warned that travellers might abandon Dublin Airport and instead use Shannon or either of Belfast’s two airports.
He said: “Passengers are fed up with queues and delays and missing flights and losing luggage and workers are fed up with getting it in the neck.
“It’s true that people are worried and turning up early as a result, but this also causes problems because they check-in their bags for flights that hours away.
“There is only storage space. Staff are being overwhelmed by travel bags and some X-ray machines are being updated or replaced and some carousel belts are under maintenance, which is all causing issues.
“Bags are taking up storage space, they’re piling up. Around 500 bags didn’t go through in recent days in one area, while 150 were left behind in another.”
He cited the example of the plane that arrived into Dublin Airport from Canada when passengers’ bags took three hours to arrive at baggage reclaim.
The source said: “When that flight then took off with a new load of departing passengers, not all their bags had been loaded on time.
“This is going to happen more often now over the coming weeks as the knock-on effect due to a build-up of problems from the past few months.”
He added: “It doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better any time soon.
“They’re telling us it will be weeks, but we’ll soon be in July and it will be the end of August or into September before things ease. The summer is lost.
“Baggage handlers are stressed. It’s a very bad work situation and some are turning on one another. I’d rather work in a gulag at times.
“They need more staff. DAA says it takes time to recruit new people and train them, but they have had months to do it.
“We know that the Garda vetting process is very slow, but the new recruits need to be fast-tracked.
“It’s a mess. Personally, if I was flying anywhere soon, I’d go to Shannon or Belfast instead of Dublin Airport.”
After the Canada flight issues, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), which is the airport’s management company, stated that it “does not handle baggage on behalf of any of our airline customers”.
A spokesperson last night told us: “Once bags are checked in, they are the responsibility of the airline.”
She added: “Everyone working at Dublin Airport wants to restore our reputation and help our passengers get to their final destination as efficiently and as smoothly as possible while we attempt to restore our customer service to a level we would all be proud of.
“We greatly appreciate the support and co-operation of all passengers as we work our way through the current challenges.”
DAA now plans to prevent passengers, who arrive very early for flights, from accessing the departures area and will keep them in a passenger holding area.
Only passengers with flights departing within two-and-a-half hours for short-haul destinations and three-and-a-half for long-haul flights will be allowed through.
Meanwhile, the airport worker also confirmed to us that abuse of staff – which we reported in April – shows no signs of ending.
He revealed two months ago that workers were verbally abused and threatened by angry passengers amid weeks of unprecedented queues Yesterday, he said that the abuse of staff – including spitting and physical intimidation – has escalated since the shocking scenes of Sunday past when around 1,400 people missed flights from departures.
Hundreds more had to queue for hours for luggage at arrivals, a situation which puts travellers and an under-pressure workforce at breaking point, he claims.
He told us: “It’s the same abuse that was happening in March, but there’s just more of it now.
“The queues and the bedlam isn’t workers’ fault, they’re doing their best, but it is a pressure cooker situation at the airport now because of it.
“Passengers’ abuse of workers isn’t on, they shouldn’t do it, but they are stressed and it’s becoming dangerous. It’s a volatile situation.
“There has been spitting and shouting and that type of behaviour is ongoing.
“There have been minor altercations like pushing security staff, but that could be an assault and it is serious.
“Passengers and workers can be set off very easily. I hear the verbal abuse and it’s not nice.
“Workers have been getting it for months, but this has escalated recently and staff are now getting the full force of it. There’s no end in sight to the problems.”
Allegations of abuse were also reported by RTE when an Airport Security Unit (ASU) officer, who is a member of SIPTU, claimed that staff have suffered significantly in recent weeks.
Workers’ representative Jerry Brennan of SIPTU aviation sector addressed the allegations of staff being treated aggressively and confirmed that the union is “constantly engaged” with Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) on this.
The DAA responded to say that it is “committed to safeguarding all those who travel through and work at Dublin Airport”.
It revealed that it has located extra airport police in certain areas at times and that gardai have also been tasked to the airport to protect staff.
DAA officials have been meeting Transport Minister Eamon Martin to outline plans to manage passenger numbers over the coming busy bank holiday weekend.
Officials at the airport have vowed to tackle all issues related to the problems, which date back to the Covid-19 pandemic when hundreds of workers lost jobs.
Around 1,000 airport workers accepted voluntary redundancy after September 2020.
Efforts are ongoing to recruit new workers to bolster the airport’s 600 security staff with up to 300 potential new employees in the training and vetting process.
Never-before-seen levels of delays and disruption at Dublin Airport first emerged in February and then spiralled over the St Patrick’s Day holiday and have now reached crisis point, according to workers and their union reps.
SIPTU told us that “no level of frustration” excuses violence and appealed to passengers to be “patient” and “respect the workers” who are “under extreme pressure”.
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