Kenneth Fox
The chief executive of Daa used the airport’s private check-in service when flying to Saudi Arabia last weekend, but denied it was a move to avoid massive queues at Dublin Airport.
As the Irish Examiner reports, Dalton Phillips told the Oireachtas Transport Committee he had used the €295 Platinum Services facility which was charged to his travel budget as chief executive.
He told the committee that his journey had taken an hour, and he had used the chauffeur service to get to his flight.
It had emerged that Mr Philips flew out of Dublin Airport over the weekend as thousands of passengers faced queueing chaos.
Mr Philips flew out of the airport on Saturday night as part of a Daa team to attend meetings in Saudi Arabia.
Sinn Féin senator Lynn Boylan pressed Mr Phillips on whether he had used Platinum Services to avoid the queues which led to 1,000 people missing their flights.
"Categorically not," he said.
"I certainly wouldn't have gone to the Middle East if I'd known this was happening."
Long delays
Mr Phillips said that he had flown to Saudi Arabia as Daa runs the airport at Jeddah but had turned around as soon as he heard of problems at Dublin.
He said he “could have avoided hassle” had he not flown to Saudi Arabia.
Earlier, a spokesperson for the Daa told the Irish Daily Mail that Mr Philips was "en route to scheduled meetings with our Daa international customers in Saudi on Sunday when he turned back when events at Dublin Airport became apparent".
While the chaos at the airport came to a head on Sunday, passengers were already reporting long delays on Saturday. It is not clear at what stage over the weekend Mr Philips arrived back in Dublin.
Senior management at the Daa, including Mr Philips, have been called before the Oireachtas Transport Committee today to explain what went wrong last Sunday when 1,400 passengers missed their flights.
Staffing shortages have been blamed for the chaotic scenes and long queues experienced last weekend. Committee Chair, Kieran O'Donnell, says they will be seeking complete assurance that this bank holiday weekend and the summer season will be different.
"We will be seeking guarantees, we will be asking the direct question of Dalton Philips and his management colleagues as to precisely what measures they are putting in place," said Mr O'Donnell.
"In simple layman's terms, what happened over the weekend was they didn't have enough lanes open in either of the two terminals and not enough staff on duty to deal with the volume of passengers which they should have known."
