By Patrick Griffin.
I know I have mentioned this before but I really used to dread having to fly anywhere from Dublin Airport. It looked rather drab, was generally overcrowded and was a place of long queues, security bottlenecks, and a thoroughly unpleasant experience from check-in to departure gate.
And given that I was a regular user of the airport, flying between Dublin and the UK every two weeks or so, I got to experience the misery quite a lot.
Thankfully I quit my Dublin-based job and subsequently had no reason to fly from Dublin for a couple of years until quite recently and my last three trips from my once most-hated airport were rather pleasant affairs with swift check in and no queues at the security checkpoints at all.
In fact the security staff actually seemed to be enjoying their jobs and took time to exchange banter with passengers which makes a thoroughly refreshing change from the surly “shoes off, belts, keys, mobile phones in the tray, laptops out” crew employed at most UK airports.
Now, I am happy to report, that I actually look forward to a flight which departs from Dublin these days because the airport authorities there seem to have got their acts together to improve the overall passenger experience.
I even find that I like the character of the old Terminal One while the newly opened Terminal Two (home to Aer Lingus) is everything you could expect from a thoroughly modern airport anywhere in the world. In fact many new airport terminals tend to look rather similar these days with lots of exposed metal beams, wide open spaces and huge windows everywhere you look.
So while not on my list of favourite airports to visit just quite yet, Dublin is growing on me with each new visit.
Bright and modern...Dublin Airport Terminal Two airside view.
And so back to Dublin Airport for my first trip with Aer Lingus since the airline moved into the all-new Terminal Two and I am very impressed. I had arrived at the airport by coach from Belfast at 2.25pm for a 4pm departure so I was concerned that I might have been cutting things a bit fine – a delay at security or at check-in and I could end up missing my flight.
In the end I need not have worried as I sailed through the entire check-in and boarding process. Just five minutes after stepping off the coach I was already inside the new terminal and printing off my boarding pass from one of the many self-service machines in the foyer.
Aer Lingus uniformed ground crew members were nearby to assist passengers in case of problems but as far I could see they had very little to do except watch the passengers walk up to the machines, punch in their details and collect their boarding passes.
I know this is exactly how the process is supposed to work but many a time I have stood in frustration at a self check-in machine as the screen flashes up “unable to process booking,” “passenger details unknown,” “please refer to a customer services agent,” or some other similar message which means you will not be getting your boarding pass any time soon.
After bag drop (see separate blog post) I headed up two nice shiny new escalators to the security screening area.
Here I found a small queue of people waiting to present their boarding passes to a happy-looking security agent who smiled as he took each boarding pass and actually chatted to the passengers.
Behind him was a series of X-ray and metal detector stations – most were in use and, as a result, there was absolutely no queue – this is almost unheard of in a modern airport and I was very pleasantly surprised indeed.
In less than two minutes I had passed through security. The whole operation was totally stress-free. Perhaps Gatwick and Heathrow airports would each like to send a delegation over to Dublin to see how a security check area should be managed because they could surely learn a thing or two.
Time to eat...the clean and modern new terminal at Dublin includes this impressive dining area.
PG
