Aldergrove Eases Dublin Air Chaos

Hundreds of local people heading off to the sun for the traditional Twelfth fortnight were left fuming last night as radar problems grounded all flights at Dublin Airport.

It was forced to halt operations when its air traffic control radar system broke down.

The airport was forced to halt all incoming flights from around 2pm after the system crashed - and Belfast's Aldergrove airport stepped in to help.

Things are said to be returning to normal today, with the airport at around three-quarters capacity, but further disruption is expected because of a problem with the air traffic control radar system on Wednesday.

All the airlines using Dublin are now working to clear a backlog of passengers waiting to travel.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) said no flights were permitted to land at the airport because controllers could not see codes used to label individual incoming aircraft, meaning they could not identify individual flights or the height they were flying at.

Last night, after frantic work to repair the system, the airport was working at around 50% of its capacity, with around 12 flights per hour landing and taking off.

Dublin handles around 600 flights every day and at peak times a plane lands or takes off every 90 seconds.

Spokeswoman for the airport, Siobhan Moore, said thousands of passengers were affected with an unknown number from the north.

She said it was impossible to say how many people from Northern Ireland had been affected, but it's thought possible that hundreds could be forced to spend the night in Dublin before catching an alternative flight today.

"Traditionally a lot of our neighbours from the north come down to fly out from Dublin over the marching season and the July 12, but it's just impossible to say how many are affected.

Speaking last night she said: "Aer Lingus and Ryanair have cancelled all of their flights for the rest of the day and they account for around 75% of traffic through the airport.

"I think they are hoping to get people onto alternative flights on Thursday and the terminal is very busy as people queue at tickets desks to rebook - we're talking about thousands of people."

Belfast International Airport spokeswoman Deborah Matchett said the problems at Dublin had made for a very busy day at Aldergrove.

"We had seven flights come to us, five Aer Lingus, one First Choice and one Futura.

"We were able to handle the extra flights as we have spare capacity and a long runway, but none were taken at the expense of any Belfast flights which have priority.

"Around a thousand extra passengers came through and they have all now been bussed to Dublin."

(BMcC/KMcA)