AER Lingus relayed some good news for Shannon this week at an Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport hearing where it was also taken to task for opening a base in Manchester.
The good news for Shannon Airport came with the airline saying it will significantly increase its transatlantic capacity there next summer.
While it still has not as yet decided to resume the summer leisure routes that it had pre pandemic, the airline’s Chief Strategy & Planning Officer Reid Moody told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport that there will be stronger US-Shannon links.
“There’ll be exactly the same frequency on Boston, but more capacity because there are more seats on the new aircraft.”
He said that there had been four weekly New York services pre pandemic, but it will be daily next year, while Aer Lingus will also maintain its three daily Heathrow services.
Mr Moody was very positive about the performance of Shannon.
“Shannon as a whole is doing really, really well overall. We see Shannon being up by 21% next summer with the overall additional seats and we’ll continue to work with the Shannon team.
“We have a really good relationship with the Shannon team and we’ll continue to work closely with them.”
At Wednesday’s sitting, Clare TD Cathal Crowe urged the airline to prioritise serving major sporting events in the region over the coming years.
“The Ryder Cup is coming to the Mid-West, there’s the prospect of the Tour de France being staged here, there are some pretty big events coming to the shores of Ireland and we want ye to position yourselves to the fore as others will, to receive people into Ireland and fly them globally.”
Responding, Mr Moody said, “It’s something we’re really interested in, our comms team and marketing team, both internally and in conjunction with the tourism bodies across the country, are really keen on exploiting all the opportunities that the opening stages of the Tour de France bring and the Ryder Cup.”
There was a different tenor to Deputy Crowe’s subsequent remarks however as he queried the propriety of Aer Lingus opening a base in Manchester, while receiving substantial pandemic payments from the Irish State.
Deputy Crowe began by inquiring how much support the airline had received from the State during the pandemic.
After hearing it was in the region of €60 million, he queried how appropriate it was to have opened a new Manchester base, while receiving such significant support from the Irish State.
He said it was “devastating” for staff with up to 30 years’ service at Shannon to lose their jobs, while a new base was established in England.
Deputy Crowe asked if the airline would consider paying back the support it got from the State. “There’s something amiss here. Has it occurred to your airline at any point that the net figure should be refunded to the Irish State?
“It might have come under a different accountancy column but it was money from the Irish taxpayer to shore up things in Ireland and in that same period you set up a brand new base in Manchester. There’s something wrong in that.”
Aer Lingus Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Donal Moriarty said that employing the logic used by Deputy Crowe, every business who receive the Temporary Wage Subsidy Scheme or the Emergency Wage Subsidy Scheme should also repay it.
The airline’s CEO Lynne Embleton said that even with the support received Aer Lingus had still been losing €1 million per day, and that its balance sheet is still severely damaged by the fallout from Covid.
Regarding the establishment of the Manchester base, she added, “There was a market opportunity there, if we hadn’t taken it someone else may well have done.”
Deputy Crowe said that in his view the situation with Aer Lingus establishing a new base at Manchester, closing the cabin crew base at Shannon and being supported by the Irish Government was unique, and he added that he would like the Public Accounts Committee to review it.
Comparing the situation to a household’s expenditure, he said, “If you’re doing the shopping on Friday and I subvent the purchase of your purchase that gives you more money to go into Lidl, Aldi and Tesco and get your groceries. This is the point.
“Almost €60 million of taxpayers money was funneled into your company, which was the right thing to do, it was about protecting the workers and allowing the company to remain intact and emerge in a healthy fasion out of Covid.
“That €60 million unburdened you from other financial commitments, it allowed you the space to explore other opportunities and the opportunity you pursued was the opening of a new base in Manchester.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.