This article is from page 6 of the 2011-11-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
COMBINED losses of over € 24 million in Shannon Airport over the past three years means that Clare’s international airport has now reached a defining point in its 75-year history – the point from which it has to start paying for itself if it wants to retain its status as a key piece of infrastructure for the mid-west region.
This stark verdict was handed down by the Minister for Transport, Leo Varadkar, on Friday when visiting the county to lend his support for the Cliffs of Moher campaign to become one of the Seven Wonders of World Nature.
“The way things are going, Shannon will not be important anymore because there will be so few people going through it and I want it to be a strategic asset for the region,” Minister Varadkar said.
“There is a difficulty with Shannon. It is losing money. It is losing over € 8 million a year and in the past that was okay, because the profits in Dublin were enough to cover it, but Dublin isn’t making money any more either, largely as a consequence of T2, so we need to make sure that Shannon is sustainable in its own right.
“I would like to see Shannon operate as an autonomous entity running its own affairs, but that can only be done if it’s financially sustainable because there isn’t subsidies available for the airport. There wasn’t during the boom, there certainty isn’t now. We are certainly in a difficult position in terms of the budget,” Minister Varadkar added.
He made his comments while in Bunratty where he announced € 6.6m in tourism products around the country.
Charting a new future for Shannon has been farmed out by Minister Varadkar to a team of consultants – Booz & Company, to undertake a consultation process will all interested parties as to the best way forward for the former hub of the aviation world.
A key proposal being teased out by the consultants is a proposal submitted by Shannon Airport Authority director, Brian O’Connell, for the airport to be leased to private business for a period of between 15 to 35 years.
“The airport assets would remain in state ownership, but the operator would be private,” Mr Varadkar said of this proposal. “There are other options as well, for example making it a state company off its own bat. I am not convinced of any of them yet and that is the purpose of the process we are doing now.
“We are not in a position to write off any debts. A lot of State compa- nies have debts and in many cases they are self-inflicted. If we were writing off debts for one State asset, we would have to do it for others and that is not something we are in a position to do.”
“Shannon is a loss-making airport and the only sustainable future for an airport like Shannon is one where it is busy and you have a lot of people flying in and out. What we had over the last number of years is the airport been neglected by policymakers and the previous government and it can’t go on the way it is.”
“In the past that was OK as the profits at Dublin (airport) would cover them. Dublin is not making any money either, so we do need to ensure that Shannon is sustainable in its own right and turn it from what it is now, a liability for the DAA, into an asset for the country and the region,” Minister Varadkar added.