A 19-year-old woman has vowed to never step foot in Dublin Airport again after a terrible experience over the weekend.
It was Kerri Creed's first time travelling alone and she was excited to visit her girlfriend in Poland after many months apart.
However, the massive queues outside the airport quickly caused the young woman great distress.
Read more: Thousands of Dublin Airport passengers missed flights after weekend chaos
She told Dublin Live that she was shocked by the large queues on Sunday morning.
Kerri said: "I was flying to Kraków to see my girlfriend who I haven’t seen in two months because she had to move back to her home country for personal reasons.
"I had my flights booked over two months in advance and arrived at Dublin Airport T1 at 5am.
"When I arrived my dad couldn’t drop me near the entrance as the whole road was not accessible.
"I walked into T1 and crossed the over head walkway to get to the main entrance for T1.
"When I got there I saw a massive queue around 800 people in the queue. I was there in 5°C weather for over an hour before I got inside and saw the horror that was waiting for me. It was freezing."
The young Dublin woman nearly fainted when the large queues made her start to panic.
She said: "When I walked inside after waiting ages to get in.
"There was well over 3K people inside queuing just to scan their boarding pass never-mind getting into security.
"I suffer from chronic anxiety and it was my first time flying alone. I was in the middle of a mass of people who were also just trying to make their flights.
Read more: 'Insane queues' at Dublin Airport giving Ireland a 'bad reputation'
"My anxiety was through the roof to the point I almost passed out and a stranger asked was I okay as I went wax white on the face.
"The panicking started to set in.
"A nice family who were also missing their flight were standing beside me and I asked them would it be okay if I stuck with them in the children and wheelchair fast lane as I was feeling extremely anxious and they let me.
"I finally got to the boarding pass scanners to where I was told they couldn’t let anymore people in just yet as there was too many people in security.
"By this time it was around 7:15am so my gate was closed and my flight was well on its way to the runway.
"I didn’t even get to go through security and I had to call my dad to come get me as by this point my legs were going from under me."
Kerri said that photos being shared online don't do the nightmarish experience justice and says she will never use Dublin Airport again.
She said: "All the queues outside were just to get inside.
"All the queues inside were just to scan your boarding pass. I could see the queues past the scanners and there was a whole other long queue to get through security.
"The photos and videos aren’t doing the real scenes justice. When you’re stuck in the middle of it all it’s like a nightmare that’s never ending.
Read more: George Hook says 'get a life' to Dara O Briain after Dublin Airport complaints
"When I rang my girlfriend she was in tears as we had an apartment booked for the week in Kraków. It’s completely put me off ever stepping foot in Dublin Airport ever again. I knew my flight was gone the second I got to the airport.
"My anxiety got the better of me due to missing my flight and the amount of crowding inside. I’m devastated as I haven’t seen my girlfriend in two months and I also took time off work for this.
"It’s also not the staff's fault as those poor people were just as stressed as the rest of us.
"There were too many flights today for the amount of staff on.
"This is a management problem."
The daa previously apologised for today's delays and said that some passengers may miss their flights.
They tweeted: "Due to significant queues inside the terminal for check-in, bag drop & security, passengers queueing outside the terminal may not make their flight & may need to contact their airline to rebook.
"We sincerely apologise for the obvious frustration and inconvenience this may cause."
Dublin Live have contacted daa for comment.
Read more: Calls for daa management to resign after Dublin Airport weekend 'fiasco'
Read more: Dublin Airport security queues: What time to arrive before a flight and advice to avoid travel chaos
Sign up to the Dublin Live Newsletter to get all the latest Dublin news straight to your inbox.
