This article is from page 14 of the 2011-03-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
SHANNON Airport must be “freed from the dead hand of the Dublin Airport Authority” and sold by the State to the highest bidder, Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary has told The Clare People in outlining his blueprint for the survival of the former hub of the aviation world as an airport of international standing.
O’Leary’s radical proposal to sell Shannon to secure its future came as he launched a new bid to generate much needed business at the airport that has been in passenger freefall over the past two years after Ryanair slashed its operations for a peak of 53 routes down to its current status of three.
In pledging to provide an extra million passengers to the airport over the next five years if granted a growth incentive scheme similar to the one ac- corded to Aer Lingus in Dublin, Mr O’Leary has challenged the incoming government to finally grant Shannon its independence by selling it.
“There is going to be much more radical solutions under the next government,” said O’Leary “and I strongly believe that one of the first State assets that should be sold should be Cork and Shannon Airports to non DAA ownership that would be committed to growing traffic.
“Seamus Brennan tried to give Shannon its independence but he was shafted by Bertie and the unions. It would be a very brave politican, particularly if it were a coalition government involving Labour that would come up with a plan to give Shannon its independence and upset Brother Beggs and Brother O’Connor.
“But Shannon should be sold debt free. The debts should stay with Dub- lin and I say that as Dublin’s biggest customer, so I’ll probably be still paying off the debt. The only way forward for traffic growth, for jobs and for tourism in Shannon and Cork is to free them from the DAA.
“One airline has demonstrated the ability to grow traffic at Shannon – that’s Ryanair. No one can take away from the fact that over the last five years we were operating over 50 routes to and from Shannon.
“There was a buzz about the place; there was traffic growth; we were working closely with what started off as the independent board of Shannon under Pat Shanahan and Tadhg Kearney. Shannon isn’t independent anymore and the best way to give it its independence would be to sell it,” added Mr O’Leary.