This article is from page 13 of the 2008-01-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 13 JPG
THE Director of Shannon Airport, Martin Moroney was upbeat and optimistic on Sunday despite a Lon- don-bound Aer Lingus flight leaving the airport for the last time.
While politicians and commenta- tors predicted devastating conse- quence for the mid-west airport, Mr Moroney was taking a more positive approach.
“We are quite happy with the Air France (City Jet) service starting up
in February. I think we will go from strength to strength,” he said.
“We also have very strong trans- atlantic services which we are very happy with, having come through the open skies challenge – a major challenge for Shannon, when many said we would have no transatlantic services. We see Aer Lingus as being very important for Shannon – crucial for Shannon in the future of transat- lantic and we support them fully and its business.
“It was a commercial decision and
we accept that,” he said of the air- line’s decision to pull the Heathrow slots from Shannon in favour of Bel- eRe
‘Heathrow broke down into three main areas. One-third of the traffic connected on to Europe and global locations and two-thirds to London. We have increased flights to London with Ryanair.
“We have the Air France service to Paris so we believe we haven’t lost any connectivity. In fact, we hope that in the near future City
Jet could begin a service to London City which is right in the middle of London’s financial centre, probably better than Heathrow for business connections to London itself. Once we get that, I believe we will have a superior product for business peo- ple,” he said. Mr Moroney admitted that a link into London City was not imminent, however. “It is unlikely to happen this year,” he said.
While he would not reveal the economic loss of the link, as it was “commercially sensitive’, he said that the loss of 320,000 passengers was a “commercial challenge’. He said, however, that the new service to Charles de Gaulle and added serv- ices from Ryanair would counteract the loss.
“Obviously it is a blow and we would prefer if it did not happen but certainly it is not a major issue for the airport. And our strength in terms of financial contribution is coming from the fact that we restructured our cost base. We have saved 10 million off the cost base. We will expand our commercial activities. You will see improvements in retail and catering this year in Shannon and you will see additional car parks so we have no problem facing the future despite this loss,’ he said.
The airport director said while there will be no Heathrow service from Shannon in 2008, the airport would continue to work to restore it.