This article is from page 16 of the 2007-04-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
MORE than 45,000 passengers trav- elled through Shannon Airport over the course of the Easter Bank Holi- day weekend, according to airport management.
But none of them found their way to one of the most scenic areas in the county, because of a lack of direc- tional signs, it is claimed.
Around 300 flights landed and took off over the weekend. This was an in- crease of 10 per cent on last year.
“With more than 50 destinations on offer, the European market generated the largest volume of passengers this Easter, as many people take advan- tage of the long weekend to soak up some sun or fit in a short city break”, an airport spokeswoman said.
But Teresa Browne of the East
Clare Tourism group said that the Lough Derg end of the county would see no benefit from increased num- bers of visitors to the county unless the council erected the directional signs which they promised.
‘“There’s not one sign for east Clare, not even for Lough Derg. North Clare and west Clare have got their signs from what we hear and the council is still talking about putting a design
team in place for East Clare. There’s no hope that they will be ready for this season. That’s another season gone with nothing being done’, she SrHKOe
The East Clare Tourism secretary said that the NRA was responsible for signs on national roads, but that “ours are non-national roads. The re- sponsibility for this lies firmly with the council. I’m delighted to hear
there are increased numbers of pas- sengers moving through Shannon but none of them are going to be able to find their way here. There’s nothing to say we even exist.”
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the airport authority said that passengers needed to remember to give them- selves plenty of time to comply with check-in and security regulations at Shannon.