This article is from page 4 of the 2013-06-18 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
THE NUMBER of commercial flights using Shannon Airport each month continues to drop – despite the completion of the Shannon Airport Authori- ty’s (SAA) new board of management this month. Figures released by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) last week reveal the enormity of the challenge faced by the SAA’s new chief executive, Neil Pakey, with the number of commercial movements for May more than 6 per cent down on the same period in 2012. However a number of new routes connecting Shannon to America and a number of European holiday destinations have been announced in recent weeks and this is expected to have an impact on figures for later in 2013. A total of 1,667 commercial movements took place in Shannon last month. This represents a drop of almost half (45.5 per cent) when compared to May 2008 – at the height of the airports capacity. Indeed, last month represents the second worst May ever recorded in the recent history of the airport. Lower figures were recorded in May 2010 – but this historic low was brought about by the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland which crippled flight all over northern Europe. “After an expected challenging start to the year, not least due to the drop in military traffic, the additional new services that have come on stream in May and earlier this month are starting to reap benefits for us,” said a Shannon Airport spokesperson. “May was on a par with last year in terms of passenger numbers and in June we are beginning to see growth for the first time. “This is really promising considering the airport has only been independent for six months and is down to the additional new services we have been delighted to secure this year at the airport.” The continued decline of commercial traffic through Shannon Airport comes as traffic numbers coming through both Dublin and Cork have shown significant signs of recovery. Transatlantic passenger number dropped from 574,843 in 2008 to 287,923 last year. Over the same period European passenger numbers fell from 1,020,437 to just 236,699 – mostly on the back of a large pull out from Ryanair.