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

Radar Fault disrupts Dublin Air Traffic - again

Today the air traffic to and from Dublin Airport (right) has been seriously disrupted - once again - due to faults in the radar of Dublin air control.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said this afternoon that Dublin Airport was working at half capacity with twelve flights arriving and twelve departing per hour. But this is subject to change.

According to an IAA spokeswoman, at around 11.45 a.m. this morning "a problem occurred with the air traffic management system". Due to a technical fault, air traffic controllers were unable to identify aircraft on their radar.

This problem lasted for approximately ten minutes, before the system returned to normal functionality. During the time of the fault all departures were held on the ground and some aircraft in the air were asked to remain where they were.

Now - as a result of this incident and in the interests of safety - restrictions have been put on the number of flights.
Air traffic controllers want to satisfy themselves that the system is stable again. This now causes delays, and passengers are advised to check with their airlines regarding their booked flights.

It is not for the first time that this has happened. Malfunctions and technical faults on the radar of Dublin Airport have occurred several times since a new system was installed in 2003 by a French company.

During my time in the Navy I used radar regularly, and thus I know a thing or two about it. For me it is hard to understand how a large and expensive radar like the one in Dublin can have so many technical faults. In my experience this points more at shoddy maintenance than at a manufacturing fault.

It is however not more than right and sensible to put safety first. But that again raises the simple question no-one dares to ask: Is there too much air traffic passing through Dublin already?

If so, then something has to be done about it, on a political and strategic level. Maybe we should, as ironic it might sound, be grateful for the radar faults if they highlight a bigger problem.

The Emerald Islander


Additional Information on Aer Lingus flights:

Aer Lingus says it had to cancel 23 flights to and from Dublin today because of the malfunction of the airport radar. Ten flights were diverted to Shannon, Belfast and Cork, and a bus service has been provided for those passengers to get them to Dublin.

All but five Aer Lingus flights after 5 p.m. this afternoon have now been canceled. The flights still scheduled to start from Dublin are: EI 109 Dublin to New York, EI 137 Dublin to Boston, EI 125 Dublin to Chicago via Shannon, EI 678 Dublin to Budapest, and EI 166 Dublin to London Heathrow.

A spokeswoman for Aer Lingus says it is too early to say whether today's disruption will have an effect on flights tomorrow, but she said the airline hopes to restore a full schedule in the morning.

Affected passengers can rebook their flights free of charge, via the website, www.aerlingus.com, or by calling reservations on 0818-365044. Passengers choosing not to travel may avail of a refund.

The fault has also caused delays to flights on other airlines.

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

Air Traffic Control should be done by the Military

Ireland's air traffic controllers are considering a Labour Court recommendation ahead of a series of meetings today in Dublin, Shannon and Cork. Last night, the Labour Court issued a recommendation that will hopefully resolve the ongoing row over staffing levels, rosters and overtime.

The IMPACT union said there were some positive elements in the recommendation. It will be seeking a meeting with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today to discuss the implications. Earlier yesterday the controllers called off plans for a 24-hour strike and an official overtime ban.
Labour Court Chairman Kevin Duffy says it is not his role to decide appropriate staffing levels in the air traffic control service. But a number of recommendations have been made to settle the dispute.

Personally I do not understand why this problem has arisen in the first place, and why it seems so difficult to sort it out. Modern Ireland is no longer a poor country, and especially since the "Celtic Tiger" boom civil servants are among the top earners in our society. And the air traffic controllers earn even more than most of the other civil servants, since they receive very generous overtime bonuses. They do have a difficult and very responsible job, no doubt, but so have many other people on much lower pay.

So I think it is not appropriate for the air traffic controllers to keep winging and holding the rest of the population - or at least those who use airlines for travel - to ransom. Their recent threats of strike action and their refusal to fill in for sick colleagues (see my entry from 17 February) is not acceptable at a time when we are told by the government to be prepared for less prosperous times. Sitting in a privileged position and knowing that without them no air traffic can happen, this relatively small group of highly paid specialists is blackmailing the whole country.

It is time to look at the wider picture and sort the problem out, once and for all. Unfortunately the current government is hampered by incompetence and widely occupied with the personal problems of Bertie Ahern. I am also not sure if Noel Dempsey, currently Minister for Transport and as such responsible for the matter, is able and willing to act decisively. What we need is a politician who can call the bluff of the air traffic controllers and get things back to normal.

And if that should appear to be impossible, I propose to take the whole air traffic control system into the responsibility of the Department of Defence, to be administered by the Aer Corps (which does not have a lot to do these days anyway). After all, the national airspace is also a matter of security and defence, and in many other countries the whole matter of air traffic - military and civilian - is exclusively in the hands of the national airforce.

I am well aware that Ireland is not a militaristic country, and that such a step would cause some upset, first and foremost from the air traffic controllers and their union. But it would be worth a step to consider, and if only as a potential stick to threaten the stubborn and arrogant air traffic controllers. (And I am writing this as a member of a trade union.)

We are a small country and an island, and as such we depend on air traffic for our industry, export and import, as well as tourism. It is not acceptable that all this, together with the national interest, stability and prosperity is put into jeopardy by a small group of well-paid people whose greed has driven them to irrational demands. For once I hope someone in the government will act in the national interest instead of wondering how to fill their own pockets most easily.

The Emerald Islander

Let's close Dublin Airport

There are no air traffic services at Dublin Airport between 11.30 p.m. on Saturday, February 16th and 6.30 a.m. on Sunday, February 17th due to the ongoing dispute between air traffic controllers and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA). Thanks be to God! This is good news, and if the argument continues, we might reduce the number of flights even further. The Irish environment and the planet would be grateful.

In a statement the IAA said it expects that nine flights in and out of Dublin Airport will be affected by the dispute. However, there could be a knock-on effect to flights early in the morning as the schedule returns to normal. This latest disruption at Dublin Airport is because it cannot get anyone to fill in for an air traffic controller who has called in sick.
One overnight arrival and five early morning departures at Cork Airport were also delayed as a result of the dispute.
The IAA said last night's disruption - the second at the airport in 48 hours - was also because workers refused to cover the shift of a colleague who had called in sick.

If it were not such a sad show by the IAA, one could laugh out loud and see this as a joke. The whole airport of the capital city of an EU country - which also is supposed to be the second-richest country in the world - is coming to a standstill because one man calls in sick. Brilliant!
Someone should nominate the IAA for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award!

Maybe the IAA should close Dublin Airport, which hardly ever works "normal", even without a strike of the air traffic controllers, altogether and turn it into a huge golf course. This would be very popular with Ireland's many golfers, and it would at the same time drastically reduce emissions and pollution, as well as our carbon footprint. The air traffic controllers could be employed as caddies, and Fáilte Ireland could collect the membership fee. Welcome to Baile Átha Golf!

The Emerald Islander