Airport benefits from adverse weather

SHANNON enjoyed some unexpected business over the last week as unfavourable weather at Cork, Dublin and Knock saw numerous flights divert to the Clare airport.
On Thursday, 10 flights diverted to Shannon, five of which were supposed to go to Dublin, three of which were headed for Cork and two that were due to go to Knock.
Aer Lingus passengers coming from Paris, Bristol and Heathrow were supposed to go to Cork, while Ryanair passengers coming from Lanzarote and Luton had been en route to Knock.
There were around 800 passengers on the five flights.
In addition, passengers had to be bussed from Knock to Shannon to fly back to Luton and from Cork to Shannon to fly to Heathrow.
On the same day, Dublin-bound Aer Lingus flights from Heathrow and Chicago had to divert to Shannon, along with Ryanair services from Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester.
On Monday, another eight flights diverted to Shannon from Dublin. These included Ryanair services from Prestwick, Leeds/Bradford and Kaunas in Lithuania; two Aer Lingus services from Heathrow and Gatwick; a British Airways service from Heathrow; as well as two transatlantic services, one from Philadelphia and one from New York.
A spokesman for Shannon said the two days had been very hectic. “They were among the busiest days the airport has experienced in terms of diversions in recent years, certainly since the ash cloud and the cold snaps in the winters of 2009 and 2010. There’s a very experienced and expert operations team here and they were more than capable of dealing with the additional arrivals and departures,” the spokesman said.