Thousands of passengers affected as Aer Lingus cancels 16 flights

Today, three more Dublin Airport return flights between Lisbon, Amsterdam and Milan have also been cut.

Speaking on Newstalk this morning, Eoghan Corry of Air and Travel Magazine, says there may be more cancellations today.

“The emphasis has changed completely from security queues, which worked really well yesterday, no more than 35 minutes, to flight cancellations.

“There’s going to be a few of these. The question is, how disruptive will it be for passengers overall?”

The daa say the army is “ready for deployment if needed”, though internal union sources warn that it’s not an option for them.

Meanwhile, the Ireland Thinks poll shows more than a third of people are reconsidering their travel plans as a result of the airport disruption.

Three return services between Dublin and London, Dublin and Amsterdam, and a return flight between London and Knock were cancelled yesterday.

Two return flights to Lyon from Dublin were also cancelled yesterday as a result of industrial action by ground handling workers at Lyon Airport.

On Friday, the airline cancelled 19 flights in a string of cancellations that first began last weekend, affecting thousands of holidaymakers.

It comes as further travel chaos could be on the way, after Spain-based Ryanair cabin crew have announced their plan to strike for a further 12 days this month.

Their unions are demanding better working conditions for workers, making the announcement yesterday, on the final day of cabin crew strike action, which led to the cancellation of 10 Ryanair flights.

Cabin crew plan to strike on three occasions later this month, with demonstrations taking place at the 10 Spanish airports where Ryanair operates.

Current security wait times are 35 minutes for Terminal 1 and 15 minutes for Terminal 2, according to Dublin Airport’s website.

Founder of Aer Lingus Regional, Padraig Ó Ceidigh has said he believes problems will continue for the rest of the year.

Speaking on Newstalk, Mr Ó Ceidigh said: “I believe this is something that’s going to take anything between four and six months to resolve because there are a combination of factors now that are seriously impinging flights and cancelling flights not only in Dublin but all over Europe as well. 

“Obviously one of them has to do to with the huge break out again of Covid, and allied to that are the issues that airports are having, particularly Dublin airport with regards to enough manpower or personal power in order to manage the throughput of passengers.”