This article is from page 4 of the 2007-08-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
that the county has been “‘let down” by Aer Lingus and said that the move has come as a complete sur- WU er ‘Here we are, going out to Milwau- kee next week, working very hard promoting Shannon Airport and Aer Lingus and we see this. We need them
to level with us, we need to have some confidence in our national carrier, in Aer Lingus,” said Paddy Maher of the Clare Tourism Council.
“With the London route, we feel that we have been let down by Aer Lingus. They have given commit- ments on other routes but the loss of the London route is a real blow.
“We are putting a lot of effort into prompting their flights, and the flights of other carriers, and this news 1s re- ally disappointing. To be honest, we were not prepared for this. It is a real blow.”
The move is likely to have major re- percussions for the county’s business sector, with early indications already
suggesting that a number of compa- nies may be force to relocate.
“There is a lot of business to be done between here and London and getting in and out of London is very important for that. This is going to put that under pressure,” he continued.
“There is a large business class customer base who used that route to do business. These people would use hotels in Shannon and Ennis and they are almost always repeat customers.”
Interim Chief Executive of Shan- non Chamber of Commerce, Laurie O’Connor, said the ending of Aer Lingus’s Shannon-Heathrow route would be “a big blow for business in detom uses (Onan
“We would get behind local busi- ness people who are very worried about this situation that appears to be unfolding — we are cautious to com- ment ahead of any official notification but certainly such a cessation would negatively impact the region and the west of Ireland,” she said.
Meanwhile, Cllr Martin Conway (FG) has called for an emergency county council meeting to be called to deal with the issue.
‘A delegation from the council need to seek a meeting with the minister on this. The government still has a 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus and we need them to start using this influence,” he eee