Aer Arann may offer Shannon-Belfast route

DIRECT flights from Shannon to Belfast could be on the cards after representatives from a number of interest groups met with the head of Aer Arann in North Clare recently.
Padraig Ó Ceidigh, the company’s chairman, was keen to point out that investigations are in the earliest stages but confirmed that Aer Arann is “interested in developing services in and out of Shannon”.
Mr Ó Ceidigh was in Ennistymon last Friday to address the National Tourism Conference held annually in the town. Prior to speaking at the conference, Mr Ó Ceidigh attended a private meeting at which representatives of a number of different interest groups spoke to him about the possibility of developing a Shannon to Belfast service. Those in attendance included delegates from Clare Tourist Council, Clare County Council, public and local representatives, Shannon Development, private sector tourism enterprises, Ennis Chamber and local authorities in Antrim.
Mr Ó Ceidigh stated that Aer Arann would be willing to operate a flight from Shannon to one of the airports in Belfast if the figures are there to support it.
“We would look positively on that [a possible Shannon-Belfast link] because we are interested in developing services in and out of Shannon overall and, at the end of the day, it depends on the financial matrix of it and how well that works when we do the business plan and get information from the various constituents both in the Belfast and Shannon regions. If it makes economic sense, well certainly we would be proactive in it. If it doesn’t make economic sense quite frankly, particularly in the current economic climate, it is not something we would be in a position to do if it is not making money,” he said.
If the service would break even, Mr Ó Ceidigh confirmed he would be very interested in providing it.
“The next step in bringing that to fruition is creating a business plan and a feasibility study looking at, and understanding, exactly what the demand is like, working a sense of what the potential revenue would be on that and using various risk apportionment, what is the most likely number of passengers you are going to get on it, then you look at the frequency, are you talking about once a week or twice a week or five times a week or seven times a week and what would the average fare be on that? That is your income. Then you start looking at the expenditure. Your expenditures would be airport charges, airport taxes and obviously the operational cost of it and the third thing you look at then is do we have the aircraft or the resources to provide this service that we believe the market demands. If you are going to start it, you start on a pretty small basis,” he stated.
“You would not be doing a full-on service day-in day-out. You would do it on a very limited basis. You would see what the reaction to that is and if that is positive, then you start going on to the next stage and you start investing more into it. The big issue when you are starting a new service is the cost of resources and getting it done and aviation is hugely, hugely, hugely expensive. My preference would be that if we were going down that route that we would do it on a partnership basis with the communities in Northern Ireland and in the Clare region, in other words that it would be a tripartite thing and there would be some form of risk sharing on the route and if that were the case, that would obviously get us to look a lot more closely at it,” he stated.
Mr Ó Ceidigh said he felt developing the Shannon-Belfast services would have to be led by the airports themselves and their hinterland communities.
“I would see it being led by Shannon Airport and the community around Shannon and by Aldergrove or Belfast City Airport and the business and tourism community around that. They prepare a fundamental model, they come to us with it then and say ‘this is what we believe in, these are the figures and so on, ye go and sanitise them, go through them, what do ye think of it, come back and let’s engage in it but this is the market as we see it’.
“They could bring this not only to Aer Arann but to a number of regional airlines but their number one choice, hopefully, I would like if it were Aer Arann. But if, for some reason, it is not working out with Aer Arann, then they can go to another regional airline and another regional airline. Aer Arann is not and should not be the only show in town,” he outlined.
Mr Ó Ceidigh told The Clare Champion that he plans to double the company’s size in the next four years and that the greatest growth “would probably be primarily in the UK market, involving UK to Ireland and internal flights in the UK and I would hope that Shannon would be one of the beneficiaries of that. Right now, I cannot say exactly what level of benefit there would be in it but certainly with Aer Arann in Shannon, with Aer Arann getting support from Shannon, there is no reason why we would not increase our resources in Shannon.”
The airline chairman added that the four Shannon services, operated under the Aer Lingus Regional brand, “are going ok but, having said that, we are in the winter period and the winter period is normally a lot more challenging than it is in the summer time when there is a lot more request or demand for our aircraft, not only in Ireland but also in the UK so you start looking at which routes are generating the greatest return for the company, that we can actually go and develop but so far we are pretty pleased with the services we have in and out of Shannon.”
Mr Ó Ceidigh said he believed developing its freight service, strengthening its relationships with a long-haul carrier going East and one going West, linking with a strong short-haul and a regional carrier would all help to develop business at Shannon Airport but he urged people and organisations in the Mid-West to get behind the facility.
“The thing is that Shannon Airport cannot do it on its own. It can actually only do it with the support of community and business and enterprise, in the greater area, not just the Shannon area because it has a far greater impact than just the Shannon or Clare or Limerick region. With respect, it goes right into Tipperary and to parts of Galway, Kerry and even parts of North Cork. It is that greater region that needs to buy into that Shannon strategy,” he concluded.