This article is from page 4 of the 2012-01-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE suspension of transatlantic services operated by Aer Lingus out of Shannon kicks in this week as flights to both Boston and New York from Clare’s international airport are cancelled for the next number of months. The decision to sever the transatlantic link over the winter period follows on from last year’s unprecedented move by Aer Lingus not to operate any transatlantic services from Shannon between January 5 to March 27, 2011.
This move represented the first time since Aer Lingus transatlantic services commenced out of Shannon in 1958 that a year-round service wasn’t provided by the national carrier.
The decision to suspend the New York and Boston routes for the winter comes after the move to end the Shannon/Chicago route for the autumn and winter schedules on September 1 last.
This suspension of the New York and Boston routes affects four flights per week between Shannon and New York and a further four flights per week between Shannon and Boston. However, the airline says it is committed to Shannon and will continue to operate these services for the remaining nine months of the year.
Last year’s cutbacks were intro- duced on the back of significant losses that were incurred during the winter months over the previous 15 years. Since 1995, Aer Lingus has lost a total of € 163 million on its transatlantic flights from Shannon during the winter months, with an average operating loss per winter season of almost € 11 million.
“Aer Lingus is committed to the Shannon market as an important part of our network,” said Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller.
“However, in order to maintain the viability of our Shannon transatlantic operations throughout the remainder of the year, the three-month suspension of these routes when seasonal demand is at its lowest is crucial.”
The suspension of the routes comes in the wake of latest passenger returns for Shannon which show that commercial flights from the airport were down by 5.7 per cent in November, when compared to the corresponding month last year. The figures also revealed that there were only 45 daily movements at Shannon during the month, a figure that compared with 49 in Cork Airport and 366 in Dublin Airport.
In 2010, almost 1.8 million passengers passed through Shannon, a decline of 37 per cent on the previous year. Terminal traffic was down 40 per cent on 2009 to 1.5 million.