The Aer Lingus website, app and self check-in kiosks are back up and running after technical difficulties ahead of what is likely to be the busiest weekend of travel of the year so far.
The airline’s online systems were down for several hours on Thursday morning but the issues were resolved at around midday.
“All Aer Lingus flights are operating as normal today. The Aer Lingus website, mobile app and self-service kiosks are now fully available for customers to check-in and manage their bookings, following a temporary issue earlier today,” a spokeswoman said.
Over the course of the morning and in spite of the technical issues, flights operated as normal although passengers were advised to allow extra time for check-in.
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The airline did not give any indication as to the cause of the IT outage. Last September its systems suffered a major breakdown which resulted in dozens of flights being cancelled and massive delays at airports with the travel plans of thousands of people thrown into disarray.
Aer Lingus blamed a “major break in connectivity” at its UK-based network provider for downing its cloud-based IT system.
That breakdown meant people could not check-in online, print out boarding passes, book flights or get anything by way of effective electronic communication from the airline.
As a result, Aer Lingus had to revert to manual methods for checking people in on a Saturday morning, a move which almost immediately led to large delays and disruption, something airline will be most anxious to avoid this weekend.
Close to half a million people are expected to pass through the airport over the bank holiday period. making it another bumper weekend for the daa, the authority which runs both Dublin and Cork airport, after what it said was a record breaking March.
It said that 2.48 million people had travelled through Dublin Airport last month with a further 181,000 passengers using Cork Airport.
The Dublin figure was 30,000 passengers up on the previous busiest March in 2019 and 33 per cent higher than in March 2022. It was also the third consecutive month of record passenger numbers at the country’s biggest airport.
During the month there were a total of 1.23 million arriving passengers at Dublin Airport and 1.25 million departing passengers.
The March figures mean that 6.65 million passengers went through Dublin Airport in the first three months of 2023, which is 102 per cent of 2019 levels.
At Cork Airport, March has followed the trend set in January and February, with another impressive performance. Last weekend, Cork Airport surpassed 500,000 passengers in the year to date. As Munster’s busiest airport, Cork Airport is set to welcome a total of 2.5 million passengers over the course of the full year.
March passenger figures at Cork Airport reflect a 10.4 per cent increase on the same period last year and a 4.6 per cent increase on March 2019.
“Our busiest St Patrick’s Day period in four years, combined with lots of other big sporting and entertainment events taking place, resulted in a really busy March at both Dublin and Cork airports,” said the DAA chief executive Kenny Jacobs.
“ACI Europe our industry body is reporting that passenger levels across Europe are generally down 12 per cent when compared to 2019, so international travel to and from Dublin and Cork airports has now recovered and is exceeding pre-pandemic levels,” he added.
“This is largely driven by flights to and from Continental Europe and transatlantic routes, followed by leisure demand and significant capacity expansion by our Irish based airline partners. "
