Dublin Airport study warns about delays
A REPORT into the capacity of Dublin Airport has issued two “advisory flags” about Terminal 2 and warned about increasing delays at peak times.
Independent consultant Helios, which was contracted by the Commission for Aviation Regulation to assess capacity at the airport, found that the T2 check-in hall was close to operational capacity due to high desk demand in the morning peak. It found US pre-clearance was also close to operational capacity.
The report did not identify a need for a new terminal at the airport but did find that additional flights in the morning peak will lead to an increasing number of delays.
The “arrivals capacity declaration” at certain times “exceeds the simulated runway throughput envelope”, it said. “This does not mean the declaration is incorrect. It just indicates that scheduled arrivals above the maximum arrivals throughput will be accommodated with delay.
“Adding extra flights into hours which are at, or close to the declared limits will incur extra delay for flights operating in these hours. Sensitivity analysis with the morning departures wave indicates that adding a flight into this period will lead to an increase in departure ground delays between two and three-and-ahalf minutes, depending on whether the added flight is an arrival or departure and whether it is a narrow body or wide body aircraft,” it said.
In recent months a war of words has erupted between Aer Lingus and the DAA as airport traffic has boomed. The airport authority is planning to build a new runway, but Aer Lingus has said that it should first prioritise other infrastructural issue it has identified.
The airline has warned that failure to improve taxiing and gate facilities at T2 will impact its ambitious plans to further develop Dublin as a transatlantic hub.
A well-informed airport source said that although the report did not pinpoint major issues it did not take into account, for example, the long promised deal between Ryanair and Aer Lingus that could increase transfer traffic between the two terminals at the airport.