LONDON – Dublin International Airport has become the latest casualty of staff shortages which is currently causing major delays in airports all over not just the UK but airports around Europe. The airport said: “shortage of security screening staff” is the main reason for the delays.
Videos have sprung on Twitter showing how bad the situation was. As shown in the video, the queues continue all the way from outside the entrance to the exit ramp. The airport has tried to put some people’s minds at ease by tweeting: “We are currently filtering passengers into the terminal buildings in an orderly manner to join check-in & security queues which are moving & we thank passengers for their cooperation & patience at this extremely busy time of the morning in advance of the first wave of departures.”
Delays continue to be a common trend
It is not the first time this week that Dublin airport had delays of this scale, just last Friday we saw significant delays, with the reason being that it was “mainly the result of a large number of passengers arriving earlier than expected ahead of flights later in the morning.”
The reported peak of that delay was between 02:30 am and 04:30 am, while the waiting time was about 70 for the passengers to pass security.
On point of credit to the airport, however, is that despite these issues, none of the affected passengers has reportedly missed their flights.
Probable solutions
The organization that manages the security team at the airport, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) have offered the staff to triple their wages if they work overtime, meaning that if a security member is earning £10 an hour they will have £30 an hour for overtime.
This could work on some of the staff members to stay behind and work more than normal, but that won’t fully solve the problem, as it wouldn’t fill the gap that is being left behind completely, meaning that the security forces need more staff from third parties.
One of such airports that don’t have their “own” security staff members is Schiphol Airport, located in the Netherlands. They have hired their security forces from a 3rd party, and in the event of a staff shortage, they can always use some of their own security forces which are on standby and not necessarily based at Schiphol. This solution would be more effective in the future as the airport doesn’t have to be self-reliant on its staff, and can always fill the gaps whenever needed.
Another possible solution for the airport would be to invest in their own staff. While the staff would earn more when working overtime, their normal wage won’t increase. While the overtime would definitely boost the airport, if the airport raises their normal wage, the security staff would be more inclined and motivated to work, and if situations like these ever happen again, the airport can ask for help from the staff. Once that has been done and asked for, the airport would be in a much better and stable position as their worries would be gone a lot faster.
