Tag Archives: Airport

PEACE group Shannonwatch held its first protest of 2023 last Sunday. Spokesman John Lannon said that the monthly protests will continue throughout 2023. “The conditions at Shannon are still the same. There are US military planes landing and taking off, in particular the troop carriers are coming through, there are other planes as well. “There has been no response from the authorities or the Government to all the requests we have made over the years for proper inspections, for information about what’s on the planes and where they are going, so the protests will continue.” There were relatively small numbers there last weekend, but he said that is usually the case at the start of the year. “January is always a poor month in terms of turnout. I can’t remember how many we had there, I think there were 10-15. “The protests have been ongoing since January 2008, with the exception of the months during the Covid lockdown when congregations …

ALL week, news reports have been highlighting the crisis at Dublin Airport, where more than 1,000 people missed flights last Sunday. Around Clare there is little sympathy for an airport which is seen as having pursued a fairly aggressive policy of targeting the traffic of its smaller competitors. Many people are saying they won’t fly from the capital again, happy to  holiday from whatever destinations Shannon has available at the time. To test the ease of using Shannon, the Clare Champion simulated the experience of a passenger catching a flight scheduled for departure to the UK at 3.15pm on Wednesday afternoon. The first step involved driving to Shannon and after leaving Ennis at 1.19pm, we turned off the engine in Shannon 21 minutes later.  While people who only fly from Shannon might not fully appreciate it, the fact of not hitting any red lights in the miles up to the airport and effectively having no congestion to deal with is …

SHANNON Group have sought tenders for the design of a new cargo hub. There has already been speculation that Shannon is close to agreeing a deal that would see Amazon open a facility close to the airport, and the new cargo hub could potentially facilitate that. The cargo hub which tenders are being sought for, would be on a four acre, undeveloped site next to the ASL hangar, along the approach road towards the airport. Shannon plans to develop a 29,708 square metre distribution facility, with a 3,767 square foot office facility. Earlier this year Shannon Group refused to comment on the discussions it had with Amazon, but in a statement it drew attention to its cargo plans. “Shannon Group is uniquely positioned in that it has a significant supply of landside/airside development sites suitable for distribution of goods by both air and road. Shannon Group has delivered 1 million sq ft of new and refurbished aviation, office and manufacturing …

REPORTS on Monday of talks between Shannon Group and Amazon caused some excitement locally, and while it is understood that there have indeed been discussion, no decision to go ahead with such a development is expected in the very near future. However, on Monday a spokesperson for Shannon Group acknowledged that there are plans for a new landside/airside cargo facility to be sited at the airport. “Shannon Group is uniquely positioned in that it has a significant supply of landside/airside development sites suitable for distribution of goods by both air and road. Shannon Group has delivered 1 million sq ft of new and refurbished aviation, office and manufacturing property solutions in the last five years and attracted new tenants such as Jaguar Land Rover, Edward Lifesciences and MeiraGTx to the Shannon Free Zone. Shannon Group’s commercial property company, Shannon Commercial Properties, has just kicked off the next phase of their development strategy for Shannon Free Zone where they propose to …

A MERE 1,461 passengers arrived into Ireland through Shannon Airport between November 30 and January 3, according to figures presented to the Dáil by Minister Eamon Ryan. The number doesn’t include passengers who were on flights that stopped over at Shannon, before going on to other destinations. The majority of the passengers, 1032, came from the UK. Another 213 came from Poland, 78 from Italy, 45 from France, and the remainder from a large number of countries. December would traditionally be a rather busy month at Shannon, but even before the recent Covid wave, traffic had almost completely ceased. Speaking in the Dáil after presenting the figures, Minister Ryan said, “The extent to which the public, including arriving passengers, are advised to either restrict movement, adhere to other public health measures or undertake Covid-19 testing is based on the advice of the public health authorities. My Department assists with the implementation of public health measures in relation to international travel, …

SHANNON Airport is facing massive problems this week, with Aer Lingus considering moving its US services away from the Clare airport and Ryanair warning staff it may close its Shannon base for the winter. At the moment Shannon’s only real passenger business is with Ryanair, while the loss of the Aer Lingus transatlantic business going forward would be a crippling blow for Clare tourism, as well as being very detrimental to the prospects of retaining and developing US investment in the west of Ireland. Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, Shannon Group CEO Mary Considine said it is very important that the Government finally adjusts the restrictions on travel. “We are looking at the worst year in history for aviation, not just here in Shannon and nationally, but globally. Ryanair and Aer Lingus are really important customers to Shannon and I think they have stated very clearly the difficulty in restoring services or really kick starting aviation with the …

SHANNON Airport was closed to aircraft for four and a half hours this morning, but it could have been much worse but for the fact a fire on board a plane was quickly spotted and extinguished. Director of Operations at Shannon Airport Niall Maloney said that the response began at 6.15am. “We were alerted by air traffic control to an issue with an aircraft that we responded to. We were responding to smoke in the undercarriage but it developed into a fire.” The aircraft in question was an Omni Boeing 767-300 which had travelled from America to Shannon and was due to go onwards to the Middle East. While Omni typically use Shannon to transport troops, there has not been confirmation as to whether or not troops were on board the plane on this occasion. There were 145 passengers and 14 crew on board the aircraft at the time and Mr Maloney said they were all uninjured. “One passenger may …

SHANNON Group got a share of stick at Monday’s meeting with the County Council, but at least one element of it was undue. In his speech to the meeting, Mayor of Clare Cathal Crowe criticised various decisions made, and also claimed that Clare’s local representatives had been ignored at a recent celebration. “It was disappointing that the airport held a significant event just last week to mark the 80th anniversary of its operations and didn’t invite the Chief Executive Pat Dowling, Councillor Gerry Flynn (Chairman of the Shannon District) or myself, as Mayor of Clare, to attend. “Shannon Group must do better to improve its working relationship with this County Council.” However some time later when Acting Shannon Group CEO Mary Considine responded to questions raised by members, she said that there actually had not been a celebratory event to mark the 80th anniversary, although Shannon had used the date to help with its own promotion.   Owen Ryan