*Shannon Airport.
LACK OF connectivity from Shannon Airport needs to be a consideration of the reconfigured Shannon Airport Oireachtas Group.
Elected members of Clare County Council have stressed the need for Shannon Airport to fight its own cause and secure a fairer share of aviation traffic into the country.
In a proposal before Monday’s meeting of the local authority, Cllr David Griffin (FF) urged the Council to support the reconfigured Oireachtas Group and to “engage proactively with the group and senior airport management to ensure that Shannon and the wider mid-west region benefits from growth in the aviation sector in years to come”.
Acting Director of Services for Economic Development, Seán Lenihan welcomed the establishment of the group which is chaired by Clare TD, Cathal Crowe (FF). “A strong and vibrant Shannon Airport is vital not only for international connectivity but also for job creation, tourism, investment and balanced regional development”. He said the Council was committed “to engaging proactively” with the group and maintaining “the good relationship we have with senior airport management”.
Speaking at Monday’s meeting, Cllr Griffin noted that Shannon Airport was “going well” currently by recording its highest level of passengers since 2019. “This group is important to have established and active, the development of Shannon Airport and the Mid-West region needs to be an a-political matter”. He suggested that either members of the group or the CEO of Shannon Airport Group come before the Council to brief them on what the local authority could do to help market the Airport. He said Dublin’s dominance of aviation with 85% of traffic in the country landing in the capital is a worry when the disruption caused by the Heathrow fire is considered. He felt the group could consider the “lack of connectivity to mainland Europe”.
Seconding the proposal, Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) noted, “we have an Oireachtas group to review and look at how to protect Shannon, we all feel we’re fighting against Dublin, we need to highlight and get that extra funding to improve access to the airport for rail and transport service”. He said Shannon had a “significant opportunity” to “be a real driver of economic activity, if we get people to come to Shannon, we need to get them to west coast of Clare”.
Shannon’s target needs to be maximising passengers, said Cllr Michael Shannon (FF). “The airport is the gateway to the North Atlantic, there five flights a day leaving Shannon to various points of North America, they are at 90% capacity or are full”. He added, “I am greatly encouraged by Michael O’Leary and Ryanair’s confidence in the Airport, he has the ability to make it work, I’d love to see the same confidence from other airlines like Aer Lingus”.
“Has the Airport been renamed,” questioned Cllr Clare Colleran Molloy (FF). “I thought it was Shannon International Airport,” she said. “I agree it is good to see passenger numbers going up but the connectivity is not good, due to my new role going to Brussels every two weeks now, I really enjoy the role but I have to go from Dublin every time,” she outlined. US travellers to Ireland each year are recording a “huge drop off”, the Quin native flagged. “We need to build on good connectivity to Europe going forward,” she said.
“Progress in Shannon has been done by Shannon, it hasn’t been done by complaining in Dublin,” commented Cllr Michael Begley (IND). “We’ve got to do this on our own, we can do it and have been doing it very successfully,” he added. Begley referred to his recent proposal to investigate the potential of the Glider system in Belfast as an alternative to the Shannon rail link.
Responding to comments by Colleran Molloy, Cllr Tommy Guilfoyle (SF) remarked, “it went so far backwards that it is now considered a regional airport”. He said, “Shannon is the number one economic driver in this county, if we ever lose further connectivity if affects everything in the county from West to the Limerick border”. Separation from the daa made Dublin Airport a “direct competitor” of Shannon’s, he believed.
According to Cllr Pat O’Gorman, Mary Considine and her team in Shannon are “doing a trojan job”. He stated, “aviation policy is one thing we have a problem with, 85% of flights are going into Dublin, we’re only looking for five or six percent extra from that and Shannon would double in size, we’ve the car parking and access to the motorway, it is a travel friendly airport, we only want a fair slice of the cake, they’re fighting in Dublin about the cap but if we got five percent more here it would make their job easier”.
