This article is from page 10 of the 2012-01-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 10 JPG
GOVERNMENT claims that the use of Shannon Airport by the US military over the past decade has been good for the economy have been called into question this week by Shannonwatch.
The mid-west-based watchdog has hit out at the what it says is the Dublin Airport Authority’s “lack of transparency” when it comes to divulging the what Shannon has earned from the military stopover since 2001.
In 2011, the US Military – on foot of a Freedom of Information request revealed that there 12,154 troop stopovers in Shannon en route to US war fronts, carrying 2,300,925 troops, while 11,995 return flights accounted for 2,029,365 military personnel over the same period from January 2001 to Janaury 2011.
And, additional figures secured by The Clare People revealed that 407 commercial flights carrying military personnel have passed through the airport from January to June 2011.
The 2001 to 2011 figures revealed that the peak period of Shannon’s use in US military operations came in 2005, when 1,973 flights passed through the airport, carrying 335,847 passengers, over double the amount that had passed through the previous year.
“In the few cases where the State could benefit financially from the US war traffic it is reluctant to give details,” a spokesperson for Shannonwatch told The Clare People this week.
“The Dublin Airport Authority has said that landing and parking fees are applied in the case of the main US troop carrier, Omni Air International. However “for confidentiality and commercial sensitivity reasons” they will not say how much it pays for its daily foreign troop flights through Shannon.
“The Irish Aviation Authority which imposes air traffic control fees also refuse to indicate what en-route and terminal air navigation charges Omni Air International pays. The lack of transparency around the payment of charges by the US military and its carriers undermines any statements that politicians make about the use of Shannon being good for the economy” the Shannonwatch spokesperson continued.
“It would be morally wrong to profit from the hundreds of thousands of lives lost as a result of the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. But it is even more alarming to realise the extent that we are supporting it financially. At a time of economic crisis, the spending of € 4 million a year by a supposedly neutral state in support of illegal wars is an outrage,” the spokesperson added.