Ryanair Apologises Over Airport Delays

Budget Airline Ryanair has apologised to passengers after incidences of under-staffing caused lengthy delays for fliers.

Passengers faced long delays at Dublin and London Stansted airports on Saturday due to lengthy queues at the airline's check-in desks.

Meanwhile, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said it had to allocate extra space to the airline's passengers on Saturday afternoon because of 40-minute queues at its check-in desks. The airline was forced to open additional desks to ease the pressure.

In a statement posted on its website, a Ryanair spokesman apologised to passengers who missed flights or had their flights delayed at Stansted airport.

The spokesman said: "Ryanair operates an on-line check in service for all its passengers. No passengers are required to queue to check in at the airport.

"Only passengers with checked-in baggage are required to use the bag drop facility.

"Due to staff shortages at our ground handling partner, Swissport, an inadequate number of bag drop desks were operating at Stansted.

"Ryanair assures its passengers that it is working with Swissport to ensure this situation does not recur," the statement said.

The DAA has also responded to the recent proposed cuts by Ryanair in the number of flights it will be making from the airport this winter.

Last week, the budget airline claimed it would be cutting its Dublin flights by 20%, blaming the government's €10 flight tax along with the DAA's costs, which the airline claimed were increasing above inflation rates, for the decision.

But a DAA spokesman said the authority believed that Ryanair's decision was purely related to the current economic downturn and contradicted many of the airline's claims.

"It is not clear what proportion of these cuts will actually take place. Recent experience shows that Ryanair announces large cuts in capacity to the media, but subsequently reduces capacity by a much smaller amount in reality," a spokesman said.

The spokesman added that independent research proved passenger charges at Dublin Airport were among the lowest of any comparable European airport, and that Dublin Airport’s passenger charges have fallen by 30% in real terms over the past 20 years.

(DW/BMcC)