Generally a good airprt (Dublin Airport (DUB))

Member Name: Pilotgavw

Product:	Dublin Airport (DUB)
Date:	10/09/09 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of destinations

Disadvantages: undergoing refurbishment

I have been to Dublin airport on several occassions and my impressions of it were that it is a relativly small airport in comparison to the London airports that handels a large volume of traffic. Whislt taxiing out or in, all you see is that this airport seems to be dominated by Aer Lingus and Ryanair aircraft, which is understandable being Irish carriers.

This airport is generally used for european destination flights or just outside, however, it does handle flights to and from further a field, for example, Aer Lingus have thier Airbus A330 aircraft completing transatlantic flights to the USA from Dublin.

Unfortunately due to the Cul-de-sac layout of the airport, a number of delays are created by aircraft waiting to push-back, unlike places like London Gatwick where the terminal layout has aircraft parked in straight lines avoiding this congestion problem.

The restaurants and shops in the airport seem to me to be better on the land side, before proceeding though to sercurity, so take this into account before going through to departures. Land side there is a McDonalds, O'Brien's Sandwich bar, several Cafe's including a Starbucks, a Bar and a general restaurant. Airside there are a couple of bars and shops including the Duty Free section, a restaurant and a few shops as well.

Security, as with every airport these days, is a bit of a hassel with people on power trips closely examining your pen and belt as they could be dangerous. Apart from this, the queue can become rediculously long and tedious sometimes taking over a hour to get through, unfortunately due to most of the flights departing the same time of day as each other.

The roads around and inside the airport perimeter are a bit of a nightmare at the moment due to the construction of a new terminal building, which should be completed this year and in its present state looks like it will be fantastic. Unfortunately it, of course, has more Cul-de-sacs.

Overall, the airport is well maintained and is a get hub with hundreds of destinations from it. Its current expansion plan should be fantastic once completed and help with the issues of long security queues once finished.

Summary: Very good