O’Leary deflates €11.7m Shannon cargo plan

THE proposed development of an €11.7 million Lynxs cargo facility at Shannon  Airport, which could potentially lead to the creation of thousands of jobs in the region, has been dismissed by Michael O’Leary.

In an interview with The Clare Champion, the Ryanair boss has clearly deflated the huge potential of this long-awaited project, claiming there is no way it will happen.
Mr O’Leary has also expressed cynicism about the latest vision for the airport announced by Transport Minsiter Leo Varadkar last week and all but laughed at the notion of the cargo hub.
“You get all the usual aul’ stuff. Shannon will have a world class cargo hub. No, it bloody won’t. You can’t have a world-class cargo hub when you haven’t got any flights. It’s complete pie in the sky. Shannon is in the wrong place for a cargo hub. You can’t have a world-class cargo hub on an island in the West of Europe that hasn’t got a motorway to anywhere.
“You have world-class cargo hubs in places like Frankfurt, in big markets in the UK, Madrid, in France where you get off a plane, onto a motorway and service huge markets,” he said.
Mr O’Leary also criticised the creation of a new steering group for the development of Shannon Airport, saying it would end up “sitting around drinking tea and eating biscuits” rather than taking any decisive action to put the airport on a sounder footing.
He roundly criticised the Department of Transport and predicted that Shannon would continue to flounder unless it is privatised.
Last year, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and Lynxs Cargo Group signed heads of agreement regarding the establishment of a cargo hub. The DAA had agreed to provide funding believed to be in the region of €6m. However, there have been fears in recent times that enthusiasm for the project was wavering on the Lynxs’ side.
In March 2009, Lynxs predicted that construction would begin in mid-2010 and finish in early 2011. The development was to include aircraft parking configurations, access to public roads, chilled and freezer storage, heated warehouse space and car parking.
In 2010, the then Shannon Airport Authority chairman, Brian O’Connell, claimed Lynxs was a project that could make a huge difference to the Mid West.
“There are about 3,000 people currently employed in logistics in the Shannon region. The creation of a logistics centre at Shannon and the development of a marine transportation hub on the estuary could potentially lead to the creation of further employment for 5,000 people in logistics and related high-end manufacturing in the wider region over the next ten to 15 years.”
While Mr O’Leary was dismissive of the prospects for the cargo hub, Deputy Pat Breen said a lot of work is ongoing to bring it to Shannon and Lynxs is still enthusiastic.
“I’m working very closely with the department and with Lynxs and I recently met with its CEO, Ray Brimble. The project is still alive, it’s not dead by any means. Lynxs wants to move forward but there are a number of considerations to be looked at.”
He also said that should work go ahead, it is now more likely to be in two phases than in one as originally envisaged. He said the two sides will “hopefully bring the matter further”.
Deputy Joe Carey insists the cargo facility is something that can succeed and that a large amount of commitment has been shown on all sides. “I would disagree with him (O’Leary) and quite an amount of work has been done on it. Lynxs is a global company and it has proven expertise on delivering projects such as this.”
He said millions of euro have been made available for the project and that discussions are continuing between Lynxs, airport authorities and the Department of Transport.
He also said the possibility of securing US cargo pre-clearance at Shannon, with passenger pre-clearance already in place, would offer a huge range of possibilities.
“If there were cargo preclearance, planes could come to Shannon and after that they would be treated as domestic flights and they wouldn’t be limited in the airports that they can fly into.”
Labour Party Deputy, Michael McNamara, said he didn’t agree with Mr O’Leary’s analysis. “I know that negotiations are ongoing. You can never be certain but I would certainly be hopeful that it’s viable. If you were to take a defeatist attitude you could say that nothing is possible outside of Dublin but I don’t agree with that world view.”