This article is from page 11 of the 2012-05-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
SHANNON Development is no longer an international airport – instead it’s a dying institution because of the “dead hands” of the Dublin Airport Authority and now Shannon Development, which threatens to be “more of the same”.
That was the stinging verdict delivered by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary in the wake of the government decision to separate Shannon Airport from DAA control by creating a new holding company comprising of Shannon Development and the old SAA to take control of the airport’s destiny.
“The last thing you’d call Shannon is a dynamic international airport,” blasted Mr O’Leary. “It is a dying airport, because it is being run by the dead hands of the Department of Transport. We have a solution to this and it’s to put Shannon up for sale.
“We’ve had lots of smoke and mirrors from the Department of Transport talking about reform, when all they’ve done is move Shannon from the DAA which is a failed quango, into SFDCO, which is no better.
“The private sector across Europe – the airlines have been privatised, the airports have been privatised, but in Ireland we have the world’s largest international airline, banging on for years about selling off airports.
“What do we do? We move the deck chairs on the Titanic. Transferring Shannon Airport to SFDCO isn’t going to recapture the two million lost passengers that Shannon has suffered in the last five years under DAA mismanagement,” he added.
In continuing his broadside, Mr O’Leary described the government announcement, which was made on the back of the Booz & Company report that put forward five possible recommendations for Shannon’s future, as “more of the same” and “drivel about a world-class aviation industry” in Shannon.
“The minister will form a steering group – a high level committee, consultation with stakeholders and another two years of fudge and dither while Shannon continues to lose traffic and lose jobs.
“We’re here fudging Shannon out of the DAA into SFDCO – why don’t we put Shannon up for sale? We’ve nothing to lose. We might get € 100m for it that might go down to pay government debt and would bring in new management and a new vision. Moving Shannon from the dead hands of the DAA to the probably the deader hands of SFDCO is not change, it’s not reform, it’s just moving the deckchairs on the Titanic,” he added.