This article is from page 2 of the 2011-08-23 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 2 JPG
A NEW masterplan for the development and safeguarding of services at Shannon Airport is set to be unveiled in September, just ahead of the 75year anniversary of when the first sod was turned to start the construction of Ireland’s first transatlantic gateway.
In consultation with Dublin Airport Authority chiefs, the Shannon Airport Authority are now believed to be putting the finishing touches to the blueprint that will be expected to chart a new future for the former hub of the aviation world over the next decade.
The plan’s publication will be the culmination of a consultation process between the Dublin Airport Authority, SAA and the public, by way of taking submissions on the airport’s future from key partners in the wider airport infrastructure and catchment area, before finalising the key points of concern and concentration in Shannon’s drive to usher in a new era of profitablity.
“A key element in drafting such a plan is to elicit the opinions of airport stakeholders,” a Shannon spokesper- son revealed in April, after business groups in the mid-west region were invited to a think-tank aimed at coming up with new ideas for the airport going forward.
The masterplan is being formulated against a backdrop of figures contained in the recently released Dublin Airport Authority annual report, which revealed that passenger numbers through Shannon in 2010 dropped by one million over the previous year.
This drop represented a 37 percent decline in passenger traffic, a 12-year low at Shannon.
Only 1,755, 885 passengers used Shannon in 2010, a figure that’s now lower than 1998 levels of 1,840,008 passengers when the airport was still reeling from the loss of its transatlantic gateway status in 1993.
The drastic fall-off in numbers, from 2,794,563 in 2009 represented the fourth year in a row that Shannon’s passenger count when into sharp decline.
Between 2004 and 2005 passenger numbers increased by a record 37.9 per cent as Shannon’s numbers grew to a record 3,639,046 from 2,395,116 over a two-year period.
It’s expected that the new blueprint will concentrate on stabilizing Shannon’s finances – rather that directly addressing the passenger decline with the transformation of Shannon into a worldwide cargo hub development seen as a potential saviour for the airport.
Into this category comes the Lynx Cargo trans-shipment facility, which is to be grant aided to the tune of € 6m by the DAA, while Shannon Development chairman, Dr Vincent Cunnane has said “the airport will not survive on passengers alone and needs a cargo hub”.