Aer Lingus technical issues resolved ahead of busy travel weekend – The Irish Times

The Aer Lingus website, app and self-check-in kiosks are back up and running after technical difficulties ahead of what is likely the busiest travel weekend of the year so far.

The airline’s online systems were down for several hours Thursday morning, but the problems were fixed around midday.

“All Aer Lingus flights are operating normally 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.

As the morning progressed and despite the technical problems, flights operated normally, although passengers were advised to allow more time for check-in.

The airline did not provide any information about the cause of the IT failure. Last September, its systems suffered a major outage, causing dozens of flights to be canceled and massive delays at airports, disrupting the travel plans of thousands of people.

Aer Lingus blamed a “major disconnect” at its UK-based network provider for the outage of its cloud-based IT system.

This glitch meant people could not check in online, print boarding passes, book flights, or receive anything from the airline via effective electronic communication.

As a result, Aer Lingus had to resort to manual methods of checking people in on a Saturday morning, a move that almost immediately resulted in major delays and disruption, something the airline is most keen to avoid this weekend.

Almost half a million people are expected to pass through the airport during the holidays. This makes it another record-breaking weekend for the daa, the authority that operates both Dublin Airport and Cork Airport, after March reportedly broke a record.

It said 2.48 million people had traveled via Dublin Airport last month, with a further 181,000 passengers using Cork Airport.

The Dublin number was 30,000 passengers higher than the busiest March 2019 and 33 percent higher than March 2022. It was also the third consecutive month of record passenger numbers at the country’s largest airport.

During the month there were a total of 1.23 million arriving passengers at Dublin Airport and 1.25 million departing passengers.

March figures mean that 6.65 million passengers passed through Dublin Airport in the first three months of 2023, up 102 per cent from 2019 levels.

At Cork Airport, March followed the trend set in January and February with another impressive performance. Last weekend, Cork Airport surpassed the 500,000 year-to-date passenger mark. As Munster’s busiest airport, Cork Airport will welcome a total of 2.5 million passengers over the course of the year.

March passenger numbers at Cork Airport reflect a 10.4 per cent increase over the same period last year and a 4.6 per cent increase over March 2019.

“Our busiest St Patrick’s Day in four years combined with many other major sporting and entertainment events taking place made for a truly busy March at Dublin and Cork Airports,” said Kenny Jacobs, Chief Executive of the DAA.

“ACI Europe, our industry association, reports that passenger traffic across Europe was down 12 per cent overall compared to 2019, with international travel to and from Dublin and Cork airports now recovering and exceeding pre-pandemic levels “, he added.

“This will be driven primarily by flights to and from continental Europe and transatlantic routes, followed by leisure demand and significant capacity expansion from our Ireland-based airline partners. “