With more than 55,000 Scottish and Irish rugby fans due to transit through Dublin Airport today and tomorrow for the Ireland-v-Scotland Six Nations decider (kick-off 14 March 2026, Aviva Stadium), the airport authority daa last night urged passengers to arrive at least three hours before departure—even for EU flights. The warning follows fresh evidence that the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) can add up to three hours to border-control processing at peak times. Although Ireland is not in Schengen, non-EU travellers connecting via another European hub must complete EES formalities on the Continent before returning home. daa’s operations director Gary McLean said that knock-on delays are already being felt in transfer queues at Dublin’s Terminal 2, as ground handlers struggle to re-book travellers who have missed connections in Paris and Amsterdam.
![Dublin Airport issues Six Nations travel alert as Entry/Exit System queues loom]()
For supporters and business passengers alike, services such as VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork that often accompanies multi-leg European trips. By visiting the dedicated Ireland page (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/), travellers can check real-time visa, transit-permit and EES requirements based on their citizenship, receive alerts on rule changes, and even arrange document processing or couriering well in advance—help that can shave precious minutes off departure day and reduce the risk of missed flights.
The Irish carrier Aer Lingus reported a 7 % rise in missed-bag connections during last weekend’s France–England fixture. The alert is the first operational advisory since the Government’s decision on 10 February to scrap the 32-million-passenger annual cap at Dublin Airport. While capacity expansion plans are welcomed by business groups, daa admits that staffing levels at immigration booths cannot be ramped up overnight. The airport is fast-tracking recruitment of 120 new Border Management Unit officers but they will not be on the floor until May. For global-mobility and travel managers the message is clear: brief travelling employees to allow extra time, complete airline Advance Passenger Information promptly, and—where itineraries involve Schengen transfers—consider using Paris Orly or Brussels, whose EES kiosks handled the rugby crowds “with fewer outages” during earlier championship rounds, according to ACI Europe. Longer term, daa says the lifting of the passenger cap will enable it to justify a €2 billion investment in a second pier, additional e-gates and a dedicated transfer security channel—improvements that should be in place before the full mandatory EES rollout deadline of April 2026. Until then, however, early arrival and flexible ticketing remain the best defence against sporting-weekend gridlock.
For supporters and business passengers alike, services such as VisaHQ can simplify the paperwork that often accompanies multi-leg European trips. By visiting the dedicated Ireland page (https://www.visahq.com/ireland/), travellers can check real-time visa, transit-permit and EES requirements based on their citizenship, receive alerts on rule changes, and even arrange document processing or couriering well in advance—help that can shave precious minutes off departure day and reduce the risk of missed flights.
The Irish carrier Aer Lingus reported a 7 % rise in missed-bag connections during last weekend’s France–England fixture. The alert is the first operational advisory since the Government’s decision on 10 February to scrap the 32-million-passenger annual cap at Dublin Airport. While capacity expansion plans are welcomed by business groups, daa admits that staffing levels at immigration booths cannot be ramped up overnight. The airport is fast-tracking recruitment of 120 new Border Management Unit officers but they will not be on the floor until May. For global-mobility and travel managers the message is clear: brief travelling employees to allow extra time, complete airline Advance Passenger Information promptly, and—where itineraries involve Schengen transfers—consider using Paris Orly or Brussels, whose EES kiosks handled the rugby crowds “with fewer outages” during earlier championship rounds, according to ACI Europe. Longer term, daa says the lifting of the passenger cap will enable it to justify a €2 billion investment in a second pier, additional e-gates and a dedicated transfer security channel—improvements that should be in place before the full mandatory EES rollout deadline of April 2026. Until then, however, early arrival and flexible ticketing remain the best defence against sporting-weekend gridlock.
