Re: Airport at 10.30am Sunday
SOM42 - the thing is that a lot of people have had bad experiences with the queues in Dublin (and elsewhere), so while some people might think it is mad to turn up 3 hours early, some others think it is the only way they can be sure (and even then there is no guarantee) of getting their flight.
Someone who gets to the airport 90 minutes early and spends 30 minutes waiting for the check-in because today is a bad day and some of the machines are broken or some of the bag-drop staff are in a mood and going slow and then *only* 30 minutes in security because today is a good day and then knows that they have 30 minutes to spare might remember that the walk down to the temporary part of the terminal will take them a good 10-15 minutes (20 or more if they have a mobility issue, or have kids, or are short of breath, etc . . .) and then might wonder how many minutes before departure time the airline closes the gates and suddenly realise there isn't as much time as they thought left out of their 90 minutes.
When you consider the cost and inconvenience of missing your flight because of events outside your control, it makes a lot of sense to do what you can to avoid the issue - the main variable that is consumed in the airport is time - if you can supply more time you reduce the chances of missing your flight.
I've never been at the airport 3 hours in advance, but I can fully understand why people would want to be there that early. I think the earliest I was there might have been about 2h30 for a US flight because I was factoring in the extra time queueing to get through pre-clearance for the US, but as I discovered - one of the advantages of the early Continental flight to Newark is that it is the first flight out and it is pretty small so there is no chance for a queue to build at pre-clearance.
z