Tag Archives: business

Over 500 Irish trade, including tourism businesses from Clare, recently attended Meitheal, Ireland’s largest travel trade fair, organised by Fáilte Ireland, in the RDS Dublin. This event is a central date in the tourism industry calendar, allowing the Irish tourism industry to actively grow its business in countries from around the world – with delegates from as far afield as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Meitheal provides a valuable opportunity to forge even stronger commercial relations between local tourism providers and the international travel trade. With interest in visiting Ireland growing, our appeal remains strong and we now offer better value than for many years. Thanking the Clare tourism trade for attending Meitheal, Fáilte Ireland CEO Shaun Quinn commented, “Tourism is in robust health and we expect growth to continue this year. However, we are not complacent and the face to face meetings that took place with the Clare trade who attended Meitheal, …

SHANNON and Cork can have guarantees of Heathrow connectivity for five years if IAG buys the State’s share in Aer Lingus, its CEO Willie Walsh pledged at today’s meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communications. Clare political figures have expressed concern about the possibility of Shannon losing its vital connectivity to Heathrow in the event of a takeover, but Mr Walsh insisted that the guarantee he is offering is far better than what the airport actually has already. He also claimed that while the concern is at one level understandable, it is actually misplaced, given that the route is profitable. Indeed, he went so far as to say that the current Aer Lingus management could not match the IAG guarantee without drawing the ire of some of the shareholders. While he said IAG is happy to give the guarantees and that there is no reason to pull away from what is a profitable route, he stressed that he will not give …

THE current Aer Lingus ownership structure gives no guarantees on the provision of Shannon-Heathrow services, group strategy director of Shannon Group, Patrick Edmond said at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Transport and Communication. Various political interests have called for the State’s shareholding in Aer Lingus to be retained, claiming it ensures connectivity for the Clare airport. However, Mr Edmond said that is not the case, pointing out that in 2007, Aer Lingus management, under the same ownership structure as exists now, transferred all of the Heathrow slots serving Shannon to Belfast. While Clare TD Timmy Dooley challenged him, Mr Edmond stood firm on his observations. In his first contribution to the sitting, Mr Edmond said that if the Government does opt to dispose of its 25% holding, it should make sure it gets some guarantees around connectivity. “We would, therefore, expect that any Government decision to sell the State’s Aer Lingus stake to IAG would be conditional on an enforceable …

WHILE he didn’t go as far as saying that there is no prospect of a deal with IAG on Aer Lingus in the absence of guarantees for Shannon, Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe stressed that connectivity for the Mid-West will be a very important consideration, when he spoke to The Clare Champion. “We’re looking at all of the consequences that the proposed bid could have for connectivity. I’m very much aware of how important connectivity is for the Shannon region and how important Shannon Airport is. I have said throughout all of this that national connectivity and the particular impact on our regions will be vital if a bid comes in,” he said. There have been claims that even if guarantees for Shannon and Cork are built into an eventual agreement between the State and IAG, they will have no real legal standing. Asked if there are any precedents where guarantees have been given on future connectivity, the minister declined to …

Transport Minister, Paschal Donohoe declined to give assurances about the future of Shannon’s Heathrow slots, but he did say in the Dáil this week that maintaining Ireland’s connectivity is a priority. Asked about the prospects of an IAG takeover of Aer Lingus by Clare and Limerick TDs, the minister said, “Currently, no formal offer has been made to Aer Lingus shareholders. That said, I wish to make clear that should such an offer be made, we will take great care and exercise great caution in examining the pros and cons to Ireland of such an offer. “We will bear in mind the same issues we considered when faced with previous takeover bids. We will consider the impact any change in ownership of Aer Lingus would have on the connectivity of Ireland, which connectivity is vital to our economy and our society. We will consider the impact it would have on competition for passengers to and from Irish airports and we …

SHANNON Airport saw passenger numbers increase by 17% in 2014, as its recovery continues. The total number of passengers went from 1.4 million in 2013 to 1,639,315 in 2014. Such an increase is very welcome at an airport, whose survival was in doubt just two years ago. In 2012, Shannon had just 1.394 million passengers, the lowest number since 1988. After its separation from the Dublin Airport Authority, the numbers kept falling in the early months of 2013, before beginning to move in the right direction in the second half of the year, with the overall figure slightly ahead of 2012. In 2014 the recovery picked up momentum, with 10 new destinations and 16 service enhancements. Following a deal with Ryanair, most of the 2014 growth was on European routes, with nine new destinations delivering a 70% increase in passengers. While the new services included some sun destinations, there were also high numbers of inbound visitors following the return of …

SHANNON Airport has rounded off a successful year on a high after being named among the award winners at the InBUSINESS Editor’s Choice Awards in association with Chamber’s Ireland. The airport, in its second year as an independent entity, won the Best Newcomer title at the third annual awards ceremony, which was held in Dublin. The awards recognise and honour exceptional business achievement and innovation in Ireland and winners are selected based on growth, profile of business, range of services and customer care. Earlier this year Shannon landed its most significant industry award ever, when it won the overall Airport Achievement Award at the inaugural Irish Aviation Industry Awards. Shannon CEO Neil Pakey said that 2014 has been an extremely successful year. “We’ve had a really strong year on so many fronts, not least with the continued growth of passenger numbers at Shannon and the finalisation of the Shannon Group. We’ve got a lot of recognition for this through international …

CLARE TD Michael McNamara has written to Transport Minister Pascal Donohoe regarding possible threats to Shannon’s Heathrow slots. In the letter, sent on December 19, he stated, “I note reports in today’s media quoting you as having said the Government remains “open to the sale” of its stake in Aer Lingus in the context of the takeover approach from British Airways’ owner, IAG. “I would appreciate assurance that any sale by the Government would be contingent on maintaining Heathrow slots for Shannon flights and that this would be legally binding in the event of a sale. Maintaining connectivity from Shannon to London and beyond via Heathrow is key to the economic future of the Mid West an area that has not yet benefited as much as others from the recovery underway across our country.” While Shannon has had a sometimes difficult relationship with Aer Lingus, there is no doubt that the airline’s Shannon-Heathrow route is very important to business in …