Tag Archives: Shannon Group

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

AMBROSE Loughlin, a former partner at McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors, Dublin, and Stephen Rae, business and media advisor, have been appointed to the board of Shannon Group PLC. Mr Loughlin and Mr Rae have been appointed by the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Shane Ross, TD, to serve on the board for a three-year term each. Rose Hynes, Chairman, Shannon Group said:  “Ambrose Loughlin and Stephen Rae are very welcome additions to the board.  Their experience will be invaluable to Shannon Group. Our new directors complement the board’s existing expertise and I look forward to working with them at this exciting and challenging time for Shannon.” Ambrose Loughlin was a partner for 22 years with McCann FitzGerald, one of Ireland’s leading law firms where in addition to client advisory work on financial services, he served in several senior management roles involving finance and risk. He is a board member since 2016 of the National Museum of Ireland and chairs its Audit …

SHANNON Group chief executive Matthew Thomas received a basic salary of €175,000 in 2018, along with other taxable benefits of €24,596. Mr Thomas also received pension contributions of €43,750, giving a total sum of €243,346. There were also business expenses of €13,448. He is due to leave Shannon Group next month and in the final annual report he will be involved with, Mr Thomas wrote, “2018 has been a positive year for Shannon Group. We have seen more passengers using our airport, more visitors enjoying our heritage tourist attraction and our property portfolio attracting more businesses to the region.” Regarding the performance of the airport, he said, “In 2018, Shannon Airport enjoyed its best year this decade, welcoming over 1.86 million passengers, a 6.5% increase in passenger numbers year on year. The UK and transatlantic markets were our best performers last year, both up 7%. During the year, there were 25,556 take-offs and landings from the airports’s newly-resurfaced runway, the …

LESS than three years after he arrived, Matthew Thomas is leaving his role as CEO of Shannon Group. He is set to take up a new position as CEO of the Ports of Jersey. Shannon Group Deputy CEO Mary Considine will take on the role of Acting CEO of Shannon Group after his departure in June. Since his arrival in mid 2016 Shannon Airport’s passenger numbers have increased, but the level of growth has been very moderate, reaching just 1.86 million last year. While this was an increase of 6.5% on 2017, it is not much more than half the numbers which used Shannon during the Celtic Tiger years, and the Clare airport’s growth was eclipsed by the increasing dominance of Dublin. Shannon is now way off the targets that were set for it as it separated from the Dublin Airport Authority at the start of 2013. On the industrial side, during Mr Thomas’ tenure there was significant investment in …

THIS week has seen calls for Shannon Group to purchase the long-closed Shannon Shamrock hotel and to develop a historic theme park, boosting Clare tourism. The hotel has been for sale for some time and it is understood that a bid in the region of €1.5 million has been made on it. Savills, the company working on the sale, are hoping to achieve a price of closer to €1.8m. At the moment, various rumours are swirling about the potential future of the property. Speaking to The Clare Champion on Wednesday, Niall O’Callaghan, managing director of Shannon Heritage, would not be drawn on whether purchasing the hotel is being considered. However, Mr O’Callaghan said that there are plans for major development in the Bunratty area. “We’re working on a masterplan at the moment in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland that we hope will come to fruition in the next 12 to 18 months. It’s part of the Fáilte Ireland Capital Grants Scheme …

SHANNON Group, which operates Shannon Airport, is calling on Government to support it in safeguarding EU connectivity for the Mid-West and Western regions in a post Brexit environment. Shannon Airport currently has UK hub connectivity through London Heathrow, which will continue to be hugely important connectivity going forward. But in a Brexit situation, as the UK exits the European Union, the airport will then be without connectivity into an EU hub. Commenting on the issue, Matthew Thomas, CEO, Shannon Group said: “European hub connectivity is vital for our tourism and business customers in the Mid-West, and Western regions. It provides the air access needed to grow tourism numbers, to conduct business and attract FDI investment from Europe and is now more important than ever in the context of Brexit. “While European connectivity is currently serviced through the London Heathrow hub, the reality is that in a post Brexit situation, the West of Ireland will be without this critical EU connectivity. …

Aer Lingus has announced that its Shannon / New York JFK service will operate year-round in 2019. Shannon is set to operate it largest Transatlantic service in 17 years with eight transatlantic services operated by six different carriers across seven destinations from Shannon in 2018. Matthew Thomas, Shannon Group CEO said, “We are delighted that Aer Lingus will be operating a New York / Shannon service year-round in 2019. With 40% of US foreign direct investment in Ireland within Shannon’s catchment area, this is great news for our business community, and makes our region much more attractive for future US FDI.” Andrew Murphy, managing director, Shannon Airport said, “We welcome the decision by Aer Lingus to restore it year-round New York service, which will benefit the business community and leisure travellers who will have more options to avail of onward connections to over 90 destinations at the JFK airport, JetBlue’s largest hub airport.” Describing the Shannon / New York JFK …

Dail deputies, Mick Wallace and Clare Daly have said  they are looking forward to testing out the new intruder radar detection tracking system being put in place to protect the 12.5km perimeter fence at Shannon Airport. The two made their comments with confirmation that Shannon Airport is set to splurge a maximum of €150,000 on the first phase of the new intruder detection tracking system at the airport perimeter fence. The perimeter fence, erected around the 968 acre airfield, has been scaled a number of times this century by anti-war activists angry over the use of Shannon by the US military. The fence was most famously scaled by Deputy Wallace and Deputy Daly in July, 2014 when the two used a rope ladder to make their incursion into the airfield. They were fined a total of €4,000 after being convicted of breaching airport regulations when entering a restricted area of Shannon airfield. However, the two did not pay the fines …