It's not unusual that airports receive complaints from travellers, authorities and local residents all the time.
Complaints are crucial for every airport because it helps them know the impact on the rating, ranking and how travellers feel about the place. They are addressed through various mediums. Whether it be social media or filing a complaint by visiting the place. For each channel, an airport hires staff for the communication process to ease out the problems immediately.
In 2021, one person filed more than 12,000 complaints in a year with the Dublin Authority (DAA) at an average rate of 34 cases per day. That's 90 per cent of all the noise complaints the airport receives annually.
The same individual filed 6,227 complaints in 2020, even though air traffic and aircraft movements had reduced at Dublin Airport due to Covid-19 pandemic.
News reports said the unidentified complainant hails from Ongar in northwest Dublin. Authorities say the person has largely been responsible for the huge increase in complaints filed with the DAA since 2019.
Stats are proof. Before the unidentified person started filing his set of complaints, DAA was receiving around 1,500 noise complaints a year. That number went up to 13,569 in 2021.
Without the person's complaint the total number of complaints was 1,296. This year the person has already filed 5,276 complaints in the first three months of 2022 at an average rate of 59 cases per day. DAA mostly receives complaints from residents who live near the Dublin Airport and are on flight path of planes. The noise-affected areas are Portmarnock, Swords, the Ward, and St Margaret’s.
A DAA spokesperson said aircraft noise was joint responsibility of Dublin Airport, the Irish Aviation Authority, and the airlines using the airport.
