This article is from page 13 of the 2008-08-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
PROSPECTS of Aer Lingus revers- ing its controversial decision to aban- don its Shannon/Heathrow service in favour of Belfast have received a ma- jor setback with latest figures show- ing that the Belfast service now lags only 2,258 passengers behind the figures for Shannon.
UK Civil Aviation Authority fig- ures for July show that 29,962 pas- sengers travelled on the new Belfast/ Heathrow route last month compared
to 32,220 on the Shannon/Heathrow route for the same month last year.
Through aggressive pricing and marketing, Aer Lingus is heading towards recapturing the passenger numbers it had on the Shannon route less than six months after the launch of the Belfast service.
The gap of 10,009 for the month of June between the two services year on year was closed by 7,751 in favour of Belfast last month.
Aer Lingus spokesman, Enda Cor- neille said they were very encouraged
by the figures which were consistent with what the airline been saying all ~NKeyatee
Load factor for July on the Belfast route was 74 per cent and Mr Cor- neille said, “We are pleased with the load factor and that traffic 1s building month on month and shows that the business case of setting up the Bel- fast/Heathrow route is sound.”
“You can’t compare the Shannon service to the Belfast service as the Shannon service was in place for a number of years and the Belfast
service 18 only in place a number of ne Levels else
He said the Belfast service had gone from zero to a load factor of 74 per cent in a matter of months.
“We are pleased with the perform- ance of all our new routes at our Bel- fast base, but especially the Heath- row route.”
Figures for the first seven months show that 139,271 passengers used the Belfast/Heathrow service — 62,000 behind in passenger numbers on the Shannon/Heathrow service
for the same period last year.
202,219 passengers used the Shan- non/Heathrow service for the first seven months of last year.
At a Dail Transport Committee hearing last month, Aer Lingus chief executive, Dermot Mannion said he regretted the damage that was caused to the airline’s reputation in the Shan- non area during three or four months of last year. He later added that, “we have not ruled out any future short- haul operations from Shannon Auir- port”.