Aer Lingus transatlantic flights among six trips cancelled today

For departures, the 11.20am Aer Lingus flight to Chicago, EI123 and the airline’s 4.45pm flight to Boston, EI137 have been cancelled.

The 8.40am British Airways flight to London, BA4463 was also called off this morning.

For arrivals, the 8.45am Aer Lingus flight from Washington, EI118 and the 12.45pm Aer Lingus flight from Seattle, EI 1052 have also been cancelled.

Meanwhile, the 8.05am British Airways flight from London, BA4460 did not go ahead either.

It comes three flights were cancelled at Dublin Airport yesterday, while a further 13 were cancelled on Sunday.

Aer Lingus has attributed recent cancellations to “operational reasons”, as it continues to deal with Covid-19 cases among staff and industrial action abroad.

The airline confirmed that today’s flights to Chicago and Boston have been cancelled “due to a spike in Covid cases”.

However, Aer Lingus did not say why the flights from Washington and Seattle were called off.

“The vast bulk of our schedule - over 98pc - has been operated, with just over 1pc of Aer Lingus flights impacted by cancellations in recent weeks,” the airline said.

"Aer Lingus wishes to apologise to our customers who have been impacted by these cancellations, and our teams at the airline are working to re-accommodate those impacted on the next available services as efficiently as possible. Impacted passengers will be contacted directly by Aer Lingus.

“Aer Lingus anticipated the return of demand for travel once Covid restrictions were removed and built buffers into our plans to deal with a reasonable level of additional disruption. However, a significant spike in Covid cases in recent weeks, combined with system pressures and ongoing issues at some airports and among third party suppliers have created considerable additional operational challenges.

“We understand that this is difficult for our customers who have been impacted, and we apologise for the disruption. We have shared detail regarding customers’ rights and the airlines’ obligations under Regulation (EC) 261/2004 which can be found here: aerlingus.com/support/legal/regulation.”

Passengers using various airlines have also reported lost luggage at Dublin Airport.

A spokesperson for the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) said it is aware of issues that some arriving passengers are facing with baggage return, but that is looked after by the airlines.

“We empathise with those affected and regret that these issues are impacting their passenger experience.

“We are liaising very closely with both the airlines and their ground handling companies in relation to these issues, the root of which lies in the significant staff hiring challenges that are facing all companies operating in the aviation sector currently.”

However, reports of long queues at the airport’s security checkpoints and outside the terminal buildings have reduced significantly in recent weeks.

At 9.15am this morning, the wait time at security was five minutes in Terminal One and 15 minutes at Terminal Two according to the DAA website.