This article is from page 6 of the 2014-02-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
FURTHER evidence that Shannon Airport is on the right flight-path to recovery was released over the weekend with the news that the airport recorded a promising increase in the number of flight movements coming through Shannon in January.
This increase is more impressive when the effects of the recent storms are considered. Shannon Airport itself has been forced to close on a number of occasions in recent weeks and a number of flights destined to arrive at Shannon Airport were also cancelled because of difficulties at other airports.
Shannon Airport recorded an average total of 38 daily movements in January of 2014 compared to the same month in 2013. This amounts to a year-on-year increase of more than 3.2 per cent.
Ireland’s en-route traffic, which means the total flights that pass through Irish airspace but do not land, decreased by 9.2 per cent in January. This decrease has been blamed mostly on the poor weather and, if a similar sized decrease was felt at Shannon Airport, it means that real flights must have shown a sizable increase to off set the effects of the poor weather.
This is in stark contrast to the number of daily movements recorded for January of 2013, which were the lowest recorded at Shannon Airport for more then a decade. These drop, which coincides with the air- port’s first month of independence from the Dublin Airport Authority, represents a 10.7 per cent year-onyear drop on the flight number from January of 2012.
“Continued strong performance in our terminal business is very encouraging. Recent announcements by a number of airlines suggests growth will continue for the remainder of the year,” said Peter Kearney, Director of Air Traffic Operations and Strategy at the Irish Aviation Authority.