Shannon bottom of numbers league

AN analysis of data on passenger numbers at 300 European airports has shown that Shannon had the worst year-on-year performance of all in 2010.

While demand across all airports was up by 4.8%, at Shannon it fell by a colossal 37.2%.
Indeed, Shannon did far worse than the second-worst performer, Britain’s Durham Tees Valley, which was down by 22.1%.
Airports from 37 countries were included and only six of them recorded a year-on-year decrease. Ireland was the worst performer of the lot with a drop of 13%.
The analysis of the various airport and country performances was carried out by aviation website www.anna.aero.
A spokesman for Shannon Airport acknowledged that while 2010 had been a difficult year, there had been exceptional difficulties and 2011 looks brighter.
“It is essential to put the traffic fall in context, as 90% of the decline in passenger numbers was due to the withdrawal of Ryanair services in the first half of last year. Ryanair withdrew services after Shannon Airport refused to accede to the airline’s unreasonable demands and the vast bulk of the fall is due to Ryanair’s own decision to remove capacity from Shannon. While there was a heavy reduction in traffic, 2010 also heralded a move for the airport towards a more sustainable network of services. This has already yielded positive results, with the airport turning the corner with the announcement of a range of new services in the latter half of the year, an upswing that has been maintained into 2011.
“These include the establishment of Aer Lingus Regional’s highly successful services to Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol and the commencement in December of the new Aer Lingus Paris Charles de Gaulle service. In January of this year we had the announcement of a new daily Aer Lingus Gatwick service plus an Aer Lingus Regional Edinburgh service, both to begin at the end of March.”
The spokesman said that there has also been some positive news from Ryanair and that 2011 should be more positive than 2010.
“Ryanair itself, despite the ending of its agreement and withdrawal of services in March of last year, has also rebounded somewhat with the announcement in the last quarter of 2010 as the establishment of a new Fuerteventura service from February as well as the reinstatement of Nantes, Malaga and Palma-Mallorca services.
“The figures contained in the anna.aero report also reflect economic trends among EU countries in 2010, with Ireland showing the sharpest traffic decline, followed by Greece. However, we believe next year’s report will show an altogether more positive result for Shannon,” he said.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Shannon Airport has reached a settlement with Ryanair regarding the airline’s failure to meet passenger targets.
It has been reported that Ryanair made a €3.5 million payment, plus costs, to the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) and it is understood that this is correct.
Had Ryanair lost a court action they could have been facing a bill of around €1.5 million more, plus additional costs. However, had the airline had success in a hearing the outcome could have been less positive for the airport.
Ryanair had agreed to deliver agreed numbers of passengers between May 2005 and April 2010. In return, the airline received discounted airport charges.
However, after the introduction of the €10 air travel tax, the airline claimed that the deal had been rendered null and void, something which the DAA did not accept.