This article is from page 3 of the 2007-08-28 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
THE effects of Open Skies on the operation of Shannon Airport is al- ready being felt with reduced serv- ice on the transatlantic this coming winter.
According to the mayor of Clare, Cllr Patricia McCarthy, the number of transatlantic services – not includ- ing Aer Lingus routes – will decrease from 35 to 23 this coming winter.
This follows moves by American Airlines, Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines to reduce services.
With the attention in the region focused on the Shannon-Heathrow slots in recent weeks, Cllr McCarthy said that it is very important that no further transatlantic services are lost.
Cllr McCarthy also accused Aer Lingus of having an anti-Shannon agenda that is apparent in its opera- tion of the transatlantic routes.
Having returned from the Irish Fest at Milwaukee as part of a del- egation promoting County Clare, Cllr McCarthy said, “We did our job which was promoting Clare and
routes into Clare and it is dreadful to be selling an airline even though you know that they have stabbed you in the back.
She added, “Talking to operators and people there, it seems that Aer Lingus is operating an anti-Shan- non agenda. I have been saying that for years, but people came up to me and told me Aer Lingus are offering routes where it is cheaper to fly to Dublin rather than Shannon from US destinations.
‘Another person who was trying to fly to Shannon was told by an Aer
Lingus employee that Dublin was the airlines’s preferred destination and said that it was easy to get from Dublin to the west coast.”
Speaking earlier this summer, the executive chairman of the Shan- non Airport Authority (SAA), Pat Shanahan sounded an upbeat note on the future of Atlantic services when he said that the SAA is aim- ing to increase its transatlantic pas- senger base by 300,000 in the years after the ending of the Shannon Stop-over.
The phased ending of the stop-
over will come fully into force next April with the introduction of full Open Skies.
Currently, the number of North America bound passengers from Shannon is 700,000.
Executive chairman of the SAA, Pat Shanahan said: “In the first cou- ple of years of Open Skies, we may see a Slight dip in the transaltantic traffic going through Shannon and it may dip from 700,000 to 650,000, but I believe that the volume of traf- fic coming into Ireland with Open Skies will increase.