This article is from page 2 of the 2008-04-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
IT WAS business as usual at Shan- non Airport yesterday despite it be- ing the date on which the Shannon stopover officially ended.
But while yesterday was the offi- cial date for the Open Skies agree- ment to take full effect, the impact of the ending of the stopover actually struck late last year.
A spokesman for Aer Rianta said there was “nothing done and no statements issued to mark the end- ing of the stopover because it had already ended”’.
A schedule of landing one flight in Shannon for every three flights land-
ed in Dublin over an 18-month pe- riod was put in place under the Open Skies talks. This came into operation in the winter 06/07 schedule.
Subsequently, a number of airlines fulfilled their obligations under the schedule and stopped landing at Shannon. American Airlines was one and it ceased its routes into Shannon while continuing to fly into Dublin last year.
“We have already had the impact of it. There will be nothing different in the scheduling next week than there was last week,’ the spokesman said.
He added that Aer Rianta are “very happy that post-Open Skies, we still have seven routes to the US with
Continental, Delta with two routes, USA Airways and Aer Lingus with three cities”.
Open Skies is the agreement be- tween the EU and US that will allow EU-based airlines to fly from any city in the EU to any city in the US and vice versa. It has lifted long-standing restrictions on what routes airlines can fly between the two areas.
Proponents say the deal will boost competition, increase flight frequen- cies, reduce fares and create jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.
But tourism and business interests in the region are concerned that the ending of the stopover, combined with a weak dollar, has already im-
pacted on business.
Hoteliers in Clare are reporting losses of up to one third of their US business bookings for this year and the Irish Tourism Industry Confed- eration is predicting that 250,000 bednights will be lost in the region over the first year of Open Skies. It will take up to three years to recover those bednights, the confederation said.
However, Deputy Tony Kileen said that the introduction of a US customs and border protection post at Shan- non would boost transatlantic traffic.
‘| think the facility will far outweigh the potential losses under Open Skies in the long term,” he said.