THIS Sunday the 7.40am Shannon-Heathrow flight will resume, marking the full restoration of the crucial London services.
The following day the Shannon-Newark service will also return after almost two years, with flights set to operate seven days a week.
Ryanair services to Palma and Malta are also beginning on Sunday, with the airport’s summer schedule kicking in.
Shannon currently offers 26 destinations including options to Budapest, Corfu, Marseille, Barcelona, Faro, Lanzarote and Edinburgh and more.
The full resumption of the Heathrow service is very welcome news for Shannon, as the London airport is one of the most significant global hubs, offering onward connectivity to a huge range of destinations.
While Shannon has connectivity to other London airports, the Heathrow service is much more important to local tourism interests and Ennis hotelier Sean Lally said that its return is hugely welcome.
“It’s probably the most important route in and out of Shannon Airport. Not alone is it a hub for the UK and European business, a lot of US customers backtrack through Heathrow as well, it just has links all over the US, and it has always been one of the key routes.
“I’m delighted to see better times of flights as well in terms of the business market. It’s great news and it is the key route in and out of Shannon Airport.”
A significant amount of American tourists will soon be arriving in Clare via that service, while the resumption of Shannon-Newark route is also a huge boost to the tourism sector here.
Mr Lally said the American visitors are crucial to the tourism sector in Clare, while he said that even in the last few weeks their impact has been noticeable.
“The Americans are the best spenders, they go everywhere in the county, they stay for longer too. It hit me last week around St Patrick’s Day, they wanted to do everything from horse riding to history tours to the usual things like Bunratty, the Cliffs and the Burren, they do the walking tours.”
“They really want to live like a local as I say, they want to see the trad music, do whiskey tastings. We had been missing that and I had a bit of a shock, I had to dig out all the files we would have had from previous seasons and hand them out to them.
“I kept saying to them it was great to hear the US accents around the place, we really did miss them for the last two years.”
He says that the American market is likely to be strong in 2022, but there are some problems.
“I think there is huge pent-up demand there. The fly in the ointment is the whole situation with the Ukraine, and the impact on food inflation and energy costs.
“I’m not sure if we’ve seen the full impact of that yet, I think there’s going to be a lot of inflationary pressures there and it’s going to be a challenge.
“It’s not all plain sailing, but there is a lot of pent up demand there in the American market and I’d hope they’d see us as a safe destination to travel to, being on the very west of Europe, but it is a worry, there’s no doubt about that.”
He said that the hotel sector is seeing a lot of functions and celebrations from the domestic market, which also has significant pent up demand after two years of tight restrictions.
Like many sectors of the economy, Mr Lally said that hoteliers have seen their costs increase dramatically and quite suddenly.
“Our costs have gone up significantly. When you look at the energy and food side of it. We’ve seen 30% growth on some of the food items over the last number of weeks.”
Shannon had over 21,000 passengers over the extended St Patrick’s Day holiday period, its busiest spell since before the pandemic.
Niall Maloney, Airport Operations Director at Shannon Airport said, “Like other airports around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll and that is why two years on, we are looking forward to doing what we do best and providing our passengers with a warm welcome and making their journey through our airport smooth and easy.
“With the lifting of travel restrictions, and the extended range of air services from Shannon this summer, we are beginning to see a growing desire to take a well-earned break, or to reconnect with family and friends overseas.
“We are really pleased with the very positive feedback from our customers using our new security screening system which eliminates the 100ml rule for our passengers.
“It means that they no longer have to separate their liquids and gels into clear plastic bags and these and other items like laptops, can remain in their cabin bag, speeding up their journey through airport security screening.”
Owen Ryan has been a journalist with the Clare Champion since 2007, having previously worked with a number of other publications in Limerick, Cork and Galway. His first book will be published in December 2024.