Shannon airport figures down

THE number of commercial traffic movements at Shannon were down by more than a quarter in October, compared to the same period last year, but it was far from the worst month of the year.

While the 26.8% decline seen in October is obviously dramatic, it’s actually the smallest year on year decline, of any month so far this year at the airport.
Prior to October the strongest month, when looked at on year to year basis compared with 2009, was July, when the drop was 28%. The worst month was April, when the decline compared to the same month in 2009 was 52.5%.
The total traffic for this year at the airport so far is 65% of what it was last year.
The fallout from Ryanair’s cutbacks is the main reason behind Shannon’s decline, which is far more significant than the drop in traffic at the other State airports, Cork and Dublin.
A spokesperson for Shannon Airport said that while the environment is very challenging, there are grounds for optimism. “In terms of traffic movements and, indeed, passenger numbers, 2010 has been an extremely challenging year for all airports, not least Shannon, but we are confident that we are moving in the right direction. Unfortunately, our traffic movements and passenger numbers have been disproportionately affected by the ending in April of this year of Ryanair’s five year agreement, which failed to deliver the ambitious passenger numbers promised.
“However, in the aftermath of that agreement, we are very much focused on rebuilding what will be a sustainable route network for the future. We have already scored significant successes in 2010, including Aer Lingus Regional’s newly established services to Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol and we also were delighted to recently announce the commencement on December 17th next of a new Aer Lingus Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) service. We are also extremely well serviced on transatlantic services, with our scheduled services (Boston, JFK and Newark) seven times that of Belfast, for instance.”
The spokesperson said that there will be more difficult times ahead, but there are possibilities for growth. “The market will remain challenging into 2011 but we are confident that we will continue to build on our recent successes by strengthening the level of sustainable services at Shannon over the coming months and beyond.”