The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
SHANNON Group recorded a loss of €28.2 million in 2020, as the pandemic devastated its aviation and tourism interests.
The operating loss was very different from 2019, when there had been an operating profit of €21.6 million.
Wage subsidies received by Shannon Group amounted to almost €3.7 million, while overall staff costs fell by over €8 million.
Writing in the Shannon Group annual report, CEO Mary Considine reflected on an extremely difficult year. “The collapse of the aviation sector resulted in just over 352,000 passengers using Shannon Airport last year, a 79% decrease on 2019. It is important to note that this full year performance was distorted by a strong start to the year before the impact of the pandemic, with passenger numbers from April to December declining by over 92% compared to the same period in 2019. In addition, our Group experienced a collapse in visitors across our portfolio of heritage attractions, which are heavily reliant on international visitors. The sites recorded just over 302,000 visitors in 2020, a reduction of almost 69% on 2019.”
One of the few bright spots was the performance of its property arm. “On a positive note, our property business performed strongly during 2020, and we continued to deliver on our property development strategy which has seen the Group deliver 1 million sq ft of commercial property solutions across the Shannon Campus at Shannon Free Zone and Shannon Airport since 2015.”
Owen Ryan
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked for a number of other regional titles in Limerick, Galway and Cork.
