Disastrous year continues at Shannon

IT was a disastrous summer for Shannon Airport, with Irish Aviation Authority figures showing a substantial drop in passenger numbers.

The key months of June, July and August saw 5,176 commercial movements at the airport, compared to 7,685 the previous year. This equated to a drop of over 32%. While there were also fewer movements at Cork and Dublin airports, in both cases the drop was less than 10%.
While the summer was very bad, the coming months will offer little respite as Ryanair is to cut another 21% of its Shannon flights for the winter, while Aer Lingus is to suspend its Shannon-US flights for the first three months of next year.
With the dismal summer, a meeting about the airport’s future was arranged last Thursday by former Mayor of Shannon and current town Councillor Sean McLoughlin, at which a number of high-level stakeholders attended.
He said he had arranged the meeting as he wants a proactive approach to the airport’s future. “Basically, everyone has been saying how terrible it is but no one has been doing anything,” he said.
Councillor McLoughlin drives a hackney at Shannon and said the airport is still declining and hasn’t stabilised.
“It’s declining day by day and we will see more of it because no one is putting on extra flights. In January, February and March, Aer Lingus will have no transatlantic flights. It was hoped that they might introduce some European ones but they haven’t and there will be a huge decline. We need to have a viable airport, not just for the town here but for the whole region.”
At the meeting it was decided that a small group would seek a meeting with Brian O’Connell, chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, to ascertain what plans have been made to build traffic and provide additional services.
Councillor Tony Mulcahy attended and said he believes Shannon needs autonomy from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).
“The dead hand of the DAA has been on Shannon for the last 20 years and it has to be taken away. A plan is needed to take Shannon forward independently.”
He said the current lack of action around creating a Lynx cargo hub at Shannon shows the lack of will of both the DAA and the Government to commit to anything positive. “The Lynx project is in limbo and neither the DAA or the Minister for Transport are making any move on it.”
The Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis was represented at the meeting and spokesman Paul Madden said hotels are under pressure and both levels of business and prices are falling.