‘Hundreds of thousands’ paid out for missed flights due to Dublin Airport delays

An Oireachtas committee has heard that “hundreds of thousands” of euro has been paid out so far to people who missed flights due to delays at Dublin Airport at the start of the summer.

On Sunday May 29, lengthy queues at security screening areas caused by unusually high staff absences resulted in 1,400 people missing their flights and prompted criticism from Government ministers, politicians and members of the public.

Dublin Airport is compensating those who were left out of pocket as a result.

At a session of the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Tuesday – where Aer Lingus and Dublin Airport appeared alongside ground handlers to answer questions about delays, cancelled flights and lost baggage – TDs and senators were told that more than 75% of claims have “either been closed out or are at an advanced stage of processing”.

Louise Bannon, head of marketing at Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), told the committee the airport has received 702 claims with an average of 1.9 people involved.

Ms Bannon said that 44% of claims, or 313, have been closed, and staff expect to have all claims completed by the end of August.

Asked for the overall cost of the claims paid out to date, Ms Bannon said roughly it was in the “hundreds of thousands”, adding: “I’d say we’d need to allow a million, and we’ll see where we come in relation to that.”

She said people are mostly claiming for flights if they had not been rebooked by their airline free of charge, incidental expenses, and food and drink.

“Sometimes it takes a bit of to-ing and fro-ing in terms of working through all of the claims very quickly, and we’ve actually found people to be very reasonable and that has helped expedite clearance of the claims,” Ms Bannon said.

Aer Lingus chief executive Lynne Embleton said the airline was “incredibly frustrated” at the operational disruptions at Dublin Airport this summer, and thanked her staff for dealing with the “many, many challenges”.

Among those challenges were staff shortages in airports and airlines across Europe, baggage system failures, staff absences due to Covid-19, and industrial action in parts of France, she said.

Ms Embleton added that sickness levels at the airline are around “four times higher” now compared with 2019, and “under half” of Aer Lingus cancellations are caused by Covid-related issues.

“We’ve been seeing sickness levels running roughly four times what we would have seen in 2019.

“Our sickness is tracking quite consistently with what we’re seeing in Covid cases in Ireland more generally.

“The majority of cancellations are not caused by that, they are caused by the restrictions put in place by other airports,” she told the committee.

Asked what percentage of cancelled flights were scrapped due to Covid-19, Ms Embleton said: “I would say under half. And of course, as the Covid wave comes down, we would expect those cancellations to come down as well.”

DAA managing director Vincent Harrison said that during the Omicron wave of Covid-19, the airport had “well in excess of 25-30% staff absences, particularly in security screening” – but current staff absence is “under 10%”, meaning the Defence Forces are not expected to be required.

“These are a high level of absence, which we would have anticipated would have been driven by Covid. Those absence levels have not materialised to date,” he said.