Collaboration key to crisis solution

WHEN Rose Hynes was named as chairperson of the Aviation Business Development Taskforce on Shannon in the summer, it looked as if she was taking on a uniquely difficult task, given the collapse that’s been going on there for several years now.
However, when the taskforce’s final report was published on Monday, it contained projections for the creation of up to 3,500 jobs in aviation-related industries, along with passenger numbers at the airport rising by about one million in nine years. Speaking to The Clare Champion, Ms Hynes said solutions to the crisis at Shannon became apparent far more quickly than she had expected.
Passenger traffic at the airport has fallen off a cliff, down from 3.6 million in 2007 to a projected 1.5 million this year, with Michael O’Leary making cracks about tumbleweed blowing along the runways.
There has been some talk about the possibility of the airport closing down but Ms Hynes, who is tipped to be chairperson of the board of the new Shannon entity, told The Clare Champion it quickly became apparent that the tide could be stemmed.
“What surprised me most was that we very quickly came to the conclusion that it was possible to actually sort this thing out. In fact, I thought that was actually going to be an awful lot more difficult but as we talked to various businesses in Shannon, various international businesses, people who live in the area, the one thing that surprised me was how quickly we managed to come to the conclusion that this thing could be sorted out. The one way it can be sorted out is everyone collaborating, everyone working together, there is no other way. I’m talking about the people who live in the entire Mid-West Region,” she said.
The brief of the taskforce was an extensive one, as they had to try and attract aviation-related industries to the region, as well as luring back airlines. She feels it’s important that there are a few elements to Shannon’s projected recovery. “There is no silver bullet for Shannon. It’s a whole raft of things that need to be done simultaneously.”
While airlines were interested in doing business with Shannon, she said they had concerns about its steep decline and were worried about its future. She indicated there may be new services coming but that carriers will keep their powder dry until the New Year, when Shannon finally exits the DAA.
“Airlines would be interested in doing business but their concern was that there was uncertainty hanging over the airport and that the uncertainty had been there for quite a long time. While they could see the opportunities, they were just too concerned about the uncertainty so therefore the single biggest enabler for Shannon is actually separation and clarity in relation to its future. But there are airlines, a number of them, willing to do business. They’ll come up to the line but they won’t cross it until post-separation and that’s why I say it’s the biggest enabler.”
The airlines actually wondered about Shannon’s survival, she commented. “They were worried that if the current rate of decline were to continue, the airport wouldn’t be [open] any longer. They were concerned about its future. Nobody’s going to do business with an airport where the future is so uncertain, where there’s no clarity.”
Bringing the airport and the Free Zone together has been a game changer, she feels. “The land bank of Shannon Development added to the airport makes it a whole new era for Shannon, it changes everything.”
It’s well documented that much of Shannon Development’s property portfolio is in an awful state. While that is the case, she feels there are still lots of possibilities. “The one thing to remember in relation to the Shannon Development property is that it’s unencumbered. Secondly, when you add a very large landbank to the airport, you open up a whole new range of possibilities.
“That’s actually what’s most important about it. There is a modest rent roll to go with it but the land is unencumbered and there are the opportunities that it opens up. That’s absolutely critical, there are whole new opportunities. When you add the land bank of Shannon Development at the airport and the Shannon Free Zone, you’re talking about over 1,000 hectares.
“I’m expecting the whole thing to change. The first thing that we will do is engage in an integrated master planning exercise in relation to the whole lot together and then decide what’s the right thing to do and what goes where because we’ve had a lot of discussions with various different businesses that are interested in coming in, particularly on airside and we need to look at that,” she concluded.