DUBLIN AIRPORT IS expecting 425,000 passengers to pass through it’s terminals this weekend, with over half that figure leaving the country and using the airport’s security queues.

The DAA estimates that about 55,000 people per day will be departing from the airport, more than that 50,000 of last year when chaotic scenes led to political intervention and ultimately the Defence Forces being put on standby.

Spokesperson for the DAA, Graeme McQueen, said “Going into this year, we knew we had to be ready, we’ve had a concerted recruitment campaign since the start of the year. We’ve now got just over 800 security staff.”

McQueen said with the additional staff they can manage and organise work flows much better and have staff on call to help with security queues if needed.

While the staffing shortages have been amended, Dublin Airport last week announced there was a shortage in parking spaces and told passengers to arrange alternative methods of transport to and from the airport if they did not have a space booked.

McQueen told The Journal the DAA is “confident” for the months ahead and believe enough has been done to prevent the similar situations to last year’s bank holiday from happening again.

Demand for car parking spaces remains “extremely high” and the airport is encouraging passengers to find other methods of transport or to arrange a lift from a friend or family member.

DAA placed a bid for the Quick Park facility to provide them with an additional 6,200 spaces, a facility they closed during the covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s around one fifth of the spaces that would normally be available at the airport. That’s put a huge squeeze on our own car-parks.” McQueen said.

McQueen added that the airport is unable to increase that number due to restrictions that the Fingal county council have placed on the land through their development plan.

McQueen said the the DAA is keeping it’s recommendation that passengers arrive to the airport two hours before a short-haul flight and three hours before a long-haul flight this summer.

McQueen added that the airport is operating at similar travel levels to 2019, where 32.9 million passengers travelled through in total.