This article is from page 20 of the 2007-12-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
SHANNON Airport is ideally placed to exploit the vast opportunities aris- ing from the EU US ‘Open Skies’ Agreement which will come fully into effect at the end of March next year.
That is the view of the transport minister, Noel Dempsey, who de- clined to answer directly questions from Clare’s two Fine Gael TDs, Pat Breen and Joe Carey, on the Aer Lingus commitment to retain serv- ices on its transatlantic routes out of
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Minister Dempsey’s predecessor, Martin Cullen, stated that he had received assurances that Aer Lingus would maintain transatlantic passen- ger levels to 400,000.
However, rumours abound that Aer Lingus may reduce or even withdraw completely its transatlantic services for the winter 2008-09 period.
In a written Dail reply Munister Dempsey said: “It is understood that Se eV U OUD M ae fort to ensure that year-round trans- atlantic services are maintained. I
would be confident that the airport authority, with the continued support of business and tourism interests in the region, can respond to the chal- lenges and opportunities presented by Open Skies.
“I understand that several studies have projected that the Open Skies agreement will lead to considerable economic benefits for Ireland, for the business sector, for the tourism industry and for the air transport in- dustry itself.
“On 7 November, Aer Lingus an- nounced that it would for summer
2008 maintain daily direct flights between Shannon to New York and Shannon to Boston and a daily flight to Chicago via Dublin. This re- flects a continuation of the schedule now being operated over the winter 2007/2008 period.
“In comparison with the 2007 sum- mer schedule the difference in the 2008 schedule is that the Chicago service 1S Operated not on a direct basis but indirectly via Dublin.”
In relation to the appointment of a further two appointees to the Aer Lingus board, Minister Dempsey
said “the State’s appointees will seek to ensure that all future decisions of the company, that have significant implications for wider government, aviation or regional development policies, including issues impacting on the mid-west regions, are consid- ered at board level”
On the business plan for Shannon airport, Minister Dempsey said that “I await the DAA’s overall consid- ered views on airport separation to enable the plans to be examined by the Minister for Finance and myself,’ the minister said.