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DAA CEO DALTON Philips has defended using a VIP private terminal in Dublin Airport for a flight to Saudi Arabia on Saturday, saying that he doesn’t use the service often.
Dublin Airport’s Platinum Services option starts at €295 per person and provides services including private check-in, suites for dining and drinking as well as an option for a chauffeur-driven car to the aircraft.
Speaking during an appearance at the Oireachtas Transport Committee today, Philips said that he didn’t personally pay for the service for his flight but that it was a charge made to his “travel budget”.
Philips had earlier apologised to passengers who missed flights due to long queues at the airport on Sunday and said he had “high confidence” that the scenes would not be repeated this weekend.
This morning, the Irish Daily Mail reported that Philips had flown to Saudi Arabia on Saturday before returning on Sunday.
DAA has business ties with the Gulf state and earlier this year won a contract to manage operations of the airport in Jeddah.
Speaking to TDs and Senators today, Philips said he flew to Saudi Arabia on Saturday night and “turned around and came straight back on a night flight” when the queuing problems in Dublin Airport developed.
Dalton was asked by Sinn Féin Senator Lynn Boylan whether he had specifically used the Platinum Services facility “because you already knew that there were starting to become significant delays”.
Dalton replied: “No, categorically not.”
I wouldn’t have gone on the flight because when I went I came all the way back. I would have saved myself, the company the cost of travelling to the Middle East. Had I known that Sunday was going to be what it was, I certainly wouldn’t have travelled on Saturday.
Boylan also asked whether he had paid to use the Platinum Services or whether “that came out of DAA expenses?”.
Philips replied “that it’s a charge made to my cost centre”.
“I don’t personally pay for it but it’s a charge that’s made into my travel budget,” he said.
Philips, who is due to leave the DAA in September, defended his use of Platinum Services, saying that he doesn’t use it frequently and that as CEO he likes to use “all services” within the airport.
“I would travel many different ways. I think it’s important to be in all parts of the business, be it going through the Fast Track product, the normal security product, going through the Platinum Service product. It’s an opportunity to see and talk to staff,” he said.
Philips also said that Platinum Services was “our best performing business” over the pandemic period due to people’s concerns about Covid-19.
Boylan then responded that the VIP service was “clearly” more associated with people “with deep pockets” than those worried about Covid.
Access to the Platinum Service starts at €295 and then you have the additional extras like chauffeur services. So when you used the Platinum Services there last Saturday, did you avail of the chauffeur element as well?
In response Philips said that Platinum Services is a “very popular product” and that “as a CEO, I think it’s important to see all our different products”.
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And this man is getting over 300k with perks. Where is Ireland going.
@Tom O’Hanlon: Obviously this Guy is out of his depth , he should be removed ASAP . A sleveen , slipping out unnoticed .
@Tom O’Hanlon: oh sure t’is terrible boss! €300k for a CEO is chump change that’s why he’s leaving.
I can see this weekend being as bad or worse as last week at Dublin Airport. There doesn’t seem to be anyone in charge of that establishment.
They won what contract? What!!!!!!!!!
@Thomas Meaney: FYI the DAA run airport retail in a lot of counties..
This lad would have trouble making a sandwich.
@Keith Stubbs: He can make a few bob though.
@Keith Stubbs: Watch out Greencore. That’s their business…
The question should be who hired him after he was fired from Morrison’s
@Ian James Burgess: At Morrisons annual AGM in June 2014, Morrisons former chairman Sir Ken Morrison blasted Phillips and his new board of directors for their running of the company Morrison inherited from his father, stating, “I have something like 1000 bullocks and, having listened to your presentation, Dalton, you’ve got a lot more bullshit that me”.[6] Morrison’s comments were backed up by his nephew Chris Blundell, who controls most of the remaining family stake in the supermarket, also told the board it needed rescuing, and welcomed the decision by chairman Sir Ian Gibson to leave the business next year after months of pressure.[7]
You honestly couldn’t make this stuff up. His business is falling ar*e over face at the weekend and he’s running out the gold plated exit door to avoid looking at his livid customers in the eye. This has been going on months, a mess entirely of their own penny pinching making. Let go staff to try ditch decent contracts and yellow pack the replacements. Typical neoliberal nonsense. But like every aspect of Irish state or semi state life, the only accountability is with those that suffer the consequences of this type of incompetence.
Does anyone actually have an ad for DAA platinum services in the middle of this story? Some cheek…
He should run for TD.
I would as well to be fair
@Pól Ó’hAodha: wouldn’t we all :D
Another us and them ,,all over payed and then we have to pay for a certain fews extravagance
Why do these failed CEO’s constantly keep getting hired for these jobs. Is ridiculous
@Stephen Walshe: because only a low performing CEO would work in the public sector.
Looks dogey blaguard sent in real people of Ireland
@Mark Murphy: Oxford commas, anyone?
@Mark Murphy: what??
Get rid of this guy.
@Brendan O’Neill: he’s already going
I could be wrong but I thought I heard the radio saying security staff is down at 550 now with a high of 900 in 2019 and not expecting to exceed 800 by the end of the summer (maybe this is nationwide and not just Dublin?), I know it’s a 24/7 operation (with a max of 16 desks I think) but how is even 550 personnel not sufficient to man them? (even 4 shifts of 6 hours and not the customary 8 it should be plenty no?).
@Pat Barry: I tad simplistic me thinks!
@Pat Barry:
Would you work 6hrs over 5 day.?
@Thomas McMillan: No, I’m just making the point that 550 bodies employed at security gates currently seems to be a lot to me, the whole scenario must be down to bad management.
@Pat Barry: Multiplied by 2 terminals, multiplied by more than 1 person per gate, multiplied by relief for lunch/personal needs breaks, multiplied by it’s probably 5 over 7 shift so people on always on rest days, multiplied by holiday coverage, plus supervisory grades and people who may be involved in checking specific people/luggage away from the desks, people who may be involved in directing passengers to desks, etc. etc.
No confidence in this tool
He did fly home though
The car to the aeroplane now that’s how to live
Who hired him?
He pretty much laughed his way through the questioning! It was an absolute shambles.
Rather than ask questions to find out what went wrong Boylan goes for the click bait approach and attacks on a personal level. I would do time before going to answer to any of these committees
Pathetic would be a kind word to use for them
A neck like a jockey’s bollox!
Eamonn Ryan should get in there now an sort this out . Dalton Philips has just given Ryan the blue print to solve some of Ireland’s Net Zero Carbon Targets.
Simple instead of the hard pressed well off people having to pay €295 to use VIP terminal. Ryan should instead insist this charge be applied to everyone who uses the normal / fast track queues. This would solve airport chaos by dramatically reducing the numbers travelling and SAVE all those CO2 emissions by radically reducing Air Traffic in & out if Ireland . It could also solve the housing crisis too as all the AirBnB’s could back into the normal rental market.
So Eamonn , hire Dalton Philips as special
Advisor when he leaves the DAA, and yourself & Dalton could solve Climate targets and housing crisis by the next Election
@XvSv: Eamonn Ryan couldn’t sort a deck of playing cards.
Love the ad placement !! Opportunistic !!
While he was using Platinum Services, everyone else was using Tin.
The Nerve of these people he should be Sacked immediately for gross incompetence and no golden parachute.
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