This article is from page 4 of the 2011-12-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
SHANNON Airport should be separated from Dublin Airport Authority control and placed under the management of a new company drawn from public bodies like Clare County Council and Shannon Development.
This is the chief recommendation given to Transport Minister, Leo Varadkar by Booz and Company – the team on international consultants hired by the Government to come up with a workable blueprint for the three state airports.
This landmark recommendation follows on from a month-long consultation process when interest groups and individuals were invited to make submissions to the consultants ahead of a November 30 deadline.
Now, The Clare People has learned that the report submitted by Booz and Company to Minister Varadkar in the past week has backed the biggest change in the airport’s 75-year history, ahead of a formal government decision that will be made at Cabinet level early in the new year.
Booz and Company have told Minister Varadkar that Shannon Airport, which has run up accumulated losses of € 24m over the past three years, is unsustainable in the current model.
The consultants warned that Shannon’s high cost base, plummeting passenger numbers that are expected to dip below 1.5m in 2011 meant that it might not have “a viable future” if the current model was maintained.
As a result the recommendation is that Shannon will be separated from the DAA, with responsibility transferred to a new public holding company, with business interests coming in to take over the management of the airport, with local public bodies like Clare County Council and Shannon Airport also having an “ownership” stake in the former hub of the aviation world.
According to Booz and Company, Shannon should maintain its international airport status, but that it that extra business ventures would have to be developed to boost traffic numbers and activity at the airport that last year saw passenger numbers decline by 37 per cent.
The consultants have highlighted the development of cargo traffic as key, a prospect that has been brought closer by Lynxs Cargo decision to establish a hub in Shannon.
Other suggestions that have been identified in the report tabled with Minister Varadakar include developing aeronautical businesses at the Shannon Free Zone and private plane traffic through the airport.
The current status at Shannon has been in place since 2004 – a half-way house whereby Cork and Shannon have their own boards but have limited autonomy from the DAA.
When he launched the consultation process on Shannon’s future in October, Minister Varadkar said the current status quo at the airport “cannot continue indefinitely”.