City airport moves to assure customers no Easter queues amid rage over Dublin fiasco

It comes after persistent complaints of extreme queues at Dublin Airport recently.

Meanwhile, Stena Line has said it is currently running an extra vessel from Belfast to Scotland and back to cater for extra demand arising from problems with its rival P&O.

While the latter has now begun sailing again between Larne and Cairnryan following a catastrophic seaworthiness report (one of the worst which international inspectors had handed out in years) Stena is now running 18 sailings a day between Belfast and south-western Scotland.

Until the Stena Nordica joined to the route a few weeks ago (alongside the existing ferries Superfast VII and Superfast IIX) the firm had been doing 12 daily sailings.

Chaos began to engulf Dublin Airport Authority late last month, with enraged travellers posting pictures of people queueing up outside the doors of the airport in the middle of the night due to problems with its security system.

By this time last week, The Times reported that some 300 formal complaints had been lodged over the fiasco, which it put down to“ staff shortages, after many workers were let go during the pandemic”.

It appeared that the aurport authorities had struggled to rehire staff to cope with the post-pandemic surge in air travel – and the headaches continued well into this week, though reports in recent days indicate the queues are abating.

Easter frequently sees a surge in travel as families reunite in Northern Ireland from across the British Isles during the bank holiday break.

When it comes to how it is faring at present, George Best Belfast City Airport (which just this week added Flybe to its list of carriers) said: “It takes just six minutes on average to pass through our security search and that will not change across the Easter period...

“The team at Belfast City are prepared to welcome thousands of passengers through the terminal this busy Easter period.”

Belfast International Airport meanwhile said it remains in the process of hiring people for well over 100 vacancies as business picks up after lockdown, adding “as we manage this return to normality, we would ask for patience and understanding”.

As for travellers on terra firma, Translink has advised that it is operating holiday timetables on Easter Monday (18 April) and Easter Tuesday (19 April); See the link below:

www.translink.co.uk

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