This article is from page 38 of the 2008-07-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 38 JPG
yester- day that from October 2008 they will be increasing the capacity of the planes servicing the route. The Shannon-Charles de Gaulle service was instigated last February follow- ing the axeing of the Aer Lingus con- nection through Heathrow.
“The decision for Aer Lingus to move their slots to Belfast was a very unwelcome one for the airport and also for the region. But the decision was made and it has happened. For us it has been blow in terms of pas- sengers and spend in the airport – it was our biggest and best route,” said Shannon Airport Director, Martin Moroney.
“We lost it quite suddenly and from that we lost global connectiv- ity. It was a huge loss to the region and to the west of Ireland as well. Twelve months on it’s still a big loss and there is no prospect really of Air
Lingus coming back on the route – in the short term at least. We will keep trying to get someone else to recom- mence the service. We will keep try- ing because we know how important the route was for the business.
“By getting in Air France/CityJet we have been running a very success- ful service to Paris since February. Obviously it a much lower capacity and doesn’t make up for the loss of
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“We believe that this service does give global connectivity through Charles de Gaulle and it will im- prove later in the year when Air France puts on a large aircraft and will possibly move the first flight to an earlier time. So far a large extent this service compensates for the loss of Heathrow but no fully.
“Some people are actually flying to
Dublin in the morning and then go- ing on to Heathrow but unfortunately some people are also driving to Cork in the morning and going form there. Our aim would be to restore Heath- row service if possible because we know it was a profitable route, it’s unlikely in the short term but that is the goal.”
Mr Moroney believes that a number of new routes will be opening up in Shannon in the near future. “We have been in talks with CityJet about the creation of a London City route. There is a large business segment that have been left without a flight to London. We are very hopeful of this but nothing has been decided yet,’ continued Mr Moroney.
“Ryanair did put on extra flights to London to serve that London market – and they have become very impor- tant to Shannon. Ryanair is doing very well here – they have 31 routes here now and that is a great network.
‘Some people are saying that they are dominating everything but they are a major airline. Maybe some people are not keen to come in and compete with them but CityJet have come into Shannon and are doing (3 aan (0) 0 ee