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While scores of people are standing at an empty rank, many taxis that are summoned using mobile phone apps may be waiting in a car park. Multiple flights are arriving from holiday destinations after midnight, and, on one occasion recently, there were 60 adults, as well as many children, queuing at the official taxi rank.
“There were no taxis. In the 15 minutes we waited, one arrived,” a source told the Irish Independent.
“However there was 30 taxis available via the FreeNow app at the same time. They were accessible by walking a few hundred metres to the car park, where there was no wait time.”
It appears that the issue relates to the fact that only airport-permitted taxis can access the rank. Online taxi service are permitted by DAA to use the car park – but no-one knows they are available.
A spokesperson for DAA said: “Some passengers will occasionally face queues for a very short period late at night when there is extremely high demand across Dublin city for taxis, especially if there are major sporting or concert events happening.
“The Dublin Airport team always acts quickly, issuing telephone calls to encourage additional taxis to come to the airport, which helps clear the queues quickly.”
DAA insists that in the past month, nine out of 10 passengers queuing for a taxi at the airport waited 10 minutes or less at the taxi rank, and that the average waiting time was less than five minutes.
“That’s down from less than eight minutes this time last year,” the spokesman said.
“The DAA is working hard to reduce wait times even further for passengers. We have recently issued an additional 300 new permits to bring to over 2,000 the number of permits in operation at Dublin Airport.
“We are actively monitoring driver activity very closely to ensure all those with permits are operating a minimum number of journeys from the airport each quarter.”
One TD said the taxi service, and its management by DAA, is “not fit for purpose” given reports of infrequent arrivals to the rank in the early hours.
Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore said: “It is not acceptable that young families have to queue for considerable periods in the middle of the night simply to get home.” “This failure doesn’t only impact holidaymakers, as business and incoming tourists also fall foul of the inability by Dublin Airport to ensure a sufficient transport service is available when people need it.”
She said this has “reputational risks” for Ireland.
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