Drop in UK-Shannon passenger numbers

THE amount of people flying between Shannon and the UK declined by over 30% in June 2010, compared to the same month last year, according to the British Civil Aviation Authority.

The figures show the impact of Ryanair scrapping a number of flights, with lower demand on most of the routes still operating.
However, there is one piece of good news as the numbers travelling on the Shannon-Heathrow route, which has huge strategic importance for the Mid-West, increased significantly.
In June 2009, 12,370 travelled on this route but in June of this year, the figure was 118% higher, at 26,967.
However, most of the other remaining routes dipped dramatically. There was a drop of 44% on the number travelling from Shannon to Gatwick, from 17,158 last year to 9,575 in June 2010. On Shannon-Stansted, the drop was 33% from 24,781 to 16,637.
The numbers travelling between Shannon and Edinburgh fell by 53%, from 8,045 to 3,811 but there was a 34% increase in the Shannon-Liverpool figure from 2,533 to 3,382. In part, this increase may be explained by the cancellation of the old Ryanair Shannon-Manchester service.
In total, four Shannon-UK routes that operated in June 2009 were cancelled in June of this year. However, in recent weeks, Aer Lingus Regional has begun routes to Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow and Manchester.
Michael Vaughan, president of the Shannon branch of the Irish Hotel Federation said that he wasn’t surprised by the figures, which he says pose a threat to the tourism industry.
“That matches perfectly what we’re seeing. The amount of visitors from Britain is back 25-35% on last year. It’s a complete disaster for tourism. It’s so serious that at the moment, attracting them is the number one priority for Tourism Ireland,” Mr Vaughan said.
While the numbers may be significantly down, he said that the reasons for the drop haven’t been clearly established. “No-one has hit on the answer, although there are a lot of theories. One is that people in Britain don’t see enough of a differential with Ireland. They see it as the same as going on holidays there. The second is that the price of a pint or a cup of coffee is dearer here and that they’re not getting value for money,” he explained.
He said the focus has been on getting back older British tourists. “There is a campaign on getting back what we call the silver surfers. These are people who would be over 55 and would have a good bit of free time and would have money to spend. It’s thought that they offer the best prospects.”
Mr Vaughan said that people in certain sectors are still charging extortionate prices and gave an example of a visitor to his hotel who had been quoted €1,200 to rent a Ford Galaxy for five days.