Business travellers flying out of Dublin on 17 February woke to yet another morning of disruption. Live operational data from flight-tracking portal Flightera showed that by 04:00 GMT, 23 per cent of scheduled flights had already logged delays averaging 62 minutes, with budget carrier Ryanair and transatlantic partner airlines reporting the heaviest knock-ons.
Airport sources blamed a perfect storm of factors: unseasonably strong cross-winds that forced runway changes overnight, a spike in sick-leave among ground-handling crews and ongoing recruitment gaps in security screening. Although only a handful of departures were cancelled, the ripple effect pushed rotation times beyond legal crew-duty limits, raising the risk of additional delays into the afternoon peak.
![Early-morning weather and staffing issues trigger fresh wave of delays at Dublin Airport]()
While airlines work through backlogs, business travellers should also make sure that their paperwork is bullet-proof. VisaHQ’s Ireland service centre (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/) can arrange emergency visas, passport renewals and up-to-the-minute entry guidance, cutting down administrative headaches when rescheduling becomes unavoidable.
For corporates the timing is awkward. With February meetings season in full swing and capacity tight ahead of St Patrick’s Day, many firms rely on same-day hops to the UK and continental Europe. Travel-management companies advised clients to build two-hour buffers into itineraries and to keep an eye on knock-on disruption at Heathrow and Schiphol, which absorb a high share of connecting traffic from Dublin.
DAA, the airport operator, says a new recruitment drive and the installation of next-generation CT scanners should ease bottlenecks before the summer rush. In the meantime, mobility managers may want to resurrect remote-meeting contingencies or shift critical travel to early afternoon slots, when punctuality historically improves.
Airport sources blamed a perfect storm of factors: unseasonably strong cross-winds that forced runway changes overnight, a spike in sick-leave among ground-handling crews and ongoing recruitment gaps in security screening. Although only a handful of departures were cancelled, the ripple effect pushed rotation times beyond legal crew-duty limits, raising the risk of additional delays into the afternoon peak.
While airlines work through backlogs, business travellers should also make sure that their paperwork is bullet-proof. VisaHQ’s Ireland service centre (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/) can arrange emergency visas, passport renewals and up-to-the-minute entry guidance, cutting down administrative headaches when rescheduling becomes unavoidable.
For corporates the timing is awkward. With February meetings season in full swing and capacity tight ahead of St Patrick’s Day, many firms rely on same-day hops to the UK and continental Europe. Travel-management companies advised clients to build two-hour buffers into itineraries and to keep an eye on knock-on disruption at Heathrow and Schiphol, which absorb a high share of connecting traffic from Dublin.
DAA, the airport operator, says a new recruitment drive and the installation of next-generation CT scanners should ease bottlenecks before the summer rush. In the meantime, mobility managers may want to resurrect remote-meeting contingencies or shift critical travel to early afternoon slots, when punctuality historically improves.
