New Charge for Plastic Bags at Dublin Airport

Passengers taking flights out of Dublin Airport will from now on be charged another unnecessary and unfair fee, for a 'service' equally needless and useless, invented by goons to make the lives of air travellers more difficult, unpleasant and costly.
Resealable plastic bags in which passengers have now to carry all permitted liquids on board their aeroplanes (see photo) will no longer be provided free to the travelling public.

Idiotic and restrictive 'security' measures, apparently "to combat terrorism", were introduced in November 2006 after a massive (and totally unsubstantiated) hype at London's main airport Heathrow.
Since then air travellers are prohibited from carrying liquids and gels on board their aeroplanes in containers greater than 100 ml. Containers which are permitted have to be placed in a clear plastic bag for inspection by 'security' staff.

Until now the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) provided passengers with these bags free of charge, at an operational cost for the company of € 70,000 per annum.
But as air travel world-wide is becoming ever more weird, irrational and inhumane, airlines and airport operators alike are turning ever more ruthless and greedy, trying to squeeze more and more money out of the gullible air travellers who were lured into flying by an apparently "cheap flight".
After adding all the taxes, fees and levies, plus a dozen extra charges by the airlines for this and that (from having a bag to paying by credit card), the actual prices people have to pay these days for flights are quite high.

The DAA's attitude is obviously that fools who are willing to pay that much for a 'cheap' flight can easily be squeezed even a bit more, especially if there is no choice or alternative. So from now on the compulsory plastic bags will only be available from vending machines, at a cost of € 1 for two bags!
As material value and production costs of the bags are less than 5 cents per item, the DAA will be making a nice and easy 900% profit from this latest extortion idea.

The DAA says that "Dublin is one of the last airports in Europe to introduce such a charge", but this is neither an argument for it, nor an excuse.
It is just the usual way of weaseling around with words and concepts. A bit like the little boy who urinates into the public swimming pool "because all the other boys do it"...

"Passengers can avoid the expense if they plan ahead," a DAA spokeswoman said.

Well, I have an even better idea: You can avoid that expense, plus all the other extortionist charges for air travel and the many extras and add-ons it now has. Just don't fly!

I have not used an aeroplane in more than 20 years, and I am still happy and get around to any place I have to travel to.
Even on an island one has still a choice, and there are very good and reliable ferries, you know... where one is not charged for everything extra, where one is not treated by staff as if one were a cross-breed between cattle and morons, where one does not have to follow dozens of equally silly and sadistic 'security' rules, and where one does not need special plastic bags to carry tooth paste and hair tonic.

I am sure that before long, once the air-travelling masses get used to the idea of paying now for their silly plastic bags as well, the price for each bag (now set at 50 cents) will rise to € 1 and eventually € 2. And those foolish enough to travel by air will pay it, most of them even without a moment of thought or reflection. Despite all the talk of financial hardship, crisis and recession there are still way too many people with more money than brains.

But there are also those who will not be conned, milked, exploited and taken up the garden path by state-licensed street robbers and highwaymen. Among them you'll always find - yours truly -

The Emerald Islander

Total Chaos at Dublin Airport

The problems with the radar system at Dublin Airport (see my entry from yesterday) are not "fully resolved yet" and continued to disrupt and delay air traffic to and from Dublin all day today.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), which is in charge of air traffic control, also said it is "unlikely that the air traffic control radar system (right) will be fully operational until after the weekend".

In fact, the faulty radar at Ireland's largest airport was only the trigger for a whole series of major problems which created a total chaos at Dublin Airport today. Nothing seems to work properly, no-one seems to know why, and no-one seems to take any responsibility for the mess.

Thousands of airline passengers spent many hours at the airport, waiting in uncertainty for flights or even proper information about them. Many flights were cancelled, others were delayed for hours.
Hundreds of passengers who were supposed to leave Dublin on various flights yesterday after 5 p.m. were left stranded at the airport overnight, without information when they could expect to depart and without any care and attention from anyone.

Neither the airlines, nor the IAA or the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) - now a private company - provided them with anything. There was no overnight accommodation, no food or drink, and no care for personal needs.

Many of the abandoned passengers gave up eventually and left Dublin Airport in disgust and anger, but several hundred, most of them from distant parts of Ireland and looking forward to their annual holidays, remained inside the airport all night. No-one tended to their needs, and they had no other choice but to sleep on the floor of the departure hall.
To make things even worse, at 4 a.m. this morning they were woken up by so-called "security guards" - uncivilised thugs in ill-fitting uniforms - who told them rudely that they had to get up and could not sleep on the airport's floor.

All day long more disruptions and delays blighted the operation of Dublin Airport, and none of the many employees of airlines, DAA and IAA knew really what was going on. Total chaos was the theme of the day. There was also no-one to be found who took any responsibility, as the DAA pointed to the IAA, who blamed the faulty radar. And the airlines pointed to both DAA and IAA, without any clue what was happening and without any efforts to make the life of their paying passengers easier.

This morning a group of Irish passengers were told that a flight to the French city of Nice, on which they were booked, was delayed "for several hours". They were told by airline ground staff to "go away and come back later" for further information. Following the advice, they went to the airport's restaurant area upstairs and had breakfast. When they returned to the airline counter about an hour later, they found out that their flight had left already, with their luggage on board.
Their (very understandable) anger and outrage caused a further disturbance of the already very tense situation, and instead of proper care and attempts to solve the problem, all the ignorant and incompetent airline staff did was to call "security" men.

If it were not so tragic for many hard-working people whose journey to their annual holiday is blighted by incompetence, mismanagement and a lack of interpersonal communication skills at Dublin Airport, one could sit back and laugh out loud. What a farce, what a shambolic and almost satirical situation!
Welcome to first world Ireland with third world technology and bronze age attitudes!

In a panic reaction to the chaos at its premises, the DAA doubled today its staff numbers "to deal with the increased passenger numbers" and the manifold problems at the airport. This can of course only be done by employing part-time personnel from agencies on short-term contracts, which means more untrained and inexperienced staff is populating the already chaotic mess that is the arrival point for most visitors to Ireland. DAA is also advising passengers to "check their flight details before flying". Well, that will be a great help, when even the ground staff of airlines is left widely in the dark and clueless.

Cautious as always and determined not to have any opinion at all, Dermot Mannion, the Chief Executive Officer of Ireland's flag carrier Aer Lingus, said today it would be "premature to apportion blame for the disruption".
I often wonder how whimps and yes-men get top jobs in our major industries and institutions...

Michael O'Leary (left), maverick Irish entrepreneur and boss of the most popular "low fare" airline Ryanair, is of a different calibre. He never minces his words and always calls a spade a spade. And good on him for that!
In an interview with the Morning Ireland programme on RTÉ Radio 1, O'Leary accused the IAA of being "not fit for purpose". He also predicted that the radar system would collapse again.

Later in the day the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey (right), was forced to comment on the matter. He told the Dáil that the air traffic control radar system at Dublin Airport was "now operating at 70% capacity" and that "testing" continued on the network. He added that it was "not practical to maintain a back-up radar system", which exists at many other major airports in the developed world.
Dempsey also made clear that the IAA is fully responsible for the matter of air traffic control and air safety. He stopped short of blaming it for the complete chaos that engulfed Dublin Airport yesterday and today (and which is expected to continue until "after the weekend").

Although the blame does obviously rest with the operators of Dublin Airport - in particular IAA and DAA - I cannot refrain from some critical remarks of a more general kind.
Too many people seem to think that flying around the world, or flying to some far-away place where it is warmer than in Ireland, is a good idea and more or less "normal". I disagree.

The massive increase in air traffic, much of it created by many so-called "low fare" airlines and widely supported by numerous travel agencies and holiday companies, is a serious anomaly and one of the main reasons for the drastic change of the global climate. The selfish desire to spend a couple of weeks on some far-away beach, where the massive sunshine burns the pale northern skins and creates more cases of skin cancer, is frankly idiotic, as well as self-destructive - for those individuals who do it, and for the whole planet.

Having become aware of the problems of air traffic and the huge pollution it creates already in the late 1980s, I decided to do my personal bit towards a cleaner planet, no matter how small it might be.
During the 1970s and 1980s I used aeroplanes regularly and flew to many destinations all around the world. All these flights were undertaken in the line of my service in the Navy, and for many of them I used military aircraft. But I have never been a tourist or holidaymaker, not even for a single day in all my life.
When I retired from the Navy and my personal circumstances changed, I decided to live a more environmentally friendly life.
I have not used an aeroplane for more than 17 years, and will never fly again. All destinations I have to travel to can easily be reached by other means, even though it does take a bit more time to get there without flying.

I have no right to tell other people how to behave, what to do and what not. And I don't. All I can do is to live my own life according to principals of logic and sensibility. If anyone wishes to do the same, it would be very easy, very welcome and very helpful for the planet.

The Emerald Islander

DAA wants a "Dublin Airport City"

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has announced the latest of its plans for what it describes as "a new city", to be built near the existing terminal complex of the airport (photo).

Only a few days after clarifying the details over the new Terminal 2, which will increase air traffic from and to Dublin (for details see my entry from April 21st) the DAA now says that it wants to build also a € 4 billion development over 140 ha to the east of the airport, comprising mainly office space.

The development has yet to get planning permission, and the funding has not been arranged either. So for the moment this is just another of the DAA's pipe dreams of gigantism, which seem to be a sign of the new company (since it gave up its old name Aer Rianta and became more trendy). However, the DAA says that their plan "fits in with the development plans of Fingal County Council" and would become "an economic hub targeting foreign direct investment".

Executives based at the "Dublin Airport City" would have "a high-speed people mover to connect with the new Metro North station" and would be able to get from their desks to airport check-in in an average of six minutes.

Well, if that is all you want, then you must be living in a different world to me, at least in quite a different country. And indeed, every time I am in Dublin the place looks a bit more alien to me, especially on the ever growing outskirts, which must be the largest building site in Europe, with the longest chronical traffic jam set into it.

And as a linguist I also wonder where our large companies get their PR staff from. What the heck is a "high-speed people mover" in proper English? Do they mean the planned Dublin Metro? Or a bus line? Or does it refer to the airport operation itself? I don't know. And I wonder if they know it themselves. The more our world is infiltrated by American-style corporate nerd language, the less we will understand companies and each other.

The new development would mean 55,000 m² of office space along with retail and hotel facilities and also a new aviation college. Although it could take 20 years to build, the DAA claims it "could add € 1 billion a year to the Irish economy".

Well, given the amount of damage the suggested devolpment would do to the environment, it is rather a small compensation. Are we going completely mad? Our obsession with ever more buildings, offices and air traffic will destroy the planet probably even before the "airport city" is completed. Honestly, it would be a lot easier and cheaper to kill ourselves by conventional means - if that is actually what we want.

The Emerald Islander

Gateway to the Nation or Gateway to Hell?

The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has confirmed that it wants to open its second terminal in two years' time. But the group - despite its misleading name now a private company - has said its total debt burden will rise to over € 1.2 billion as a result of the development in the next three years.

The steel frame of the building for the second terminal (of which you can see a model here) is in place and work has commenced on an airport apron space forty times the size of Croke Park. But the cost of the airport's expansion will have to be partly met by the ordinary people using it. In future years passenger charges will rise by € 2.

Ryanair - in all fairness, but not entirely charitable - claims that the facility is "too big and too expensive". Quite right. But the DAA says it is "designed to meet a balance of needs" and is "a vital gateway to the nation". What nation, one has to ask? There is hardly an Irish nation left here, and all we have now is a mixed conglomerate not unlike the one you find in New York, with lots of ethnic groups and tribes who stick together, but no overall feeling of community and nation.

What surprises me is that this enlargement of Dublin airport happens at a time when we hear so much of "carbon footprints" and the ever worsening pollution of the Earth's atmosphere, leading to "global warming", other climate changes and irreperable damage to our planet.
Every aeroplane that flies contributes in a serious way to the problem. But instead of flying less and reducing the number of flights and airports, there is a constant global increase in air traffic, including in Ireland.

What the DAA calls "a vital gateway to the nation" could very well be soon a gateway to Hell.

Are we completely mad? Or bound on collective suicide for the whole human race? Or is this just another of the many Fianna Fáil scams, set up to make some rich builders and developers in the party even richer and more ignorant?

I don't understand it, and I deeply resent the whole development of air travel and the airline industry. So I have stopped using aeroplanes for good and will no longer fly anywhere. If I cannot get to a destination by other means of trabsport, it is probably not worth going there, and I won't.

The Emerald Islander