*Dara Brady. Photograph: Brian Arthur
RYANAIR are confident of further expanding their services at Shannon Airport.
On Thursday, the airline announced its winter schedule from Shannon which will run eighteen different routes.
Thirty new jobs have been created with the airline deciding to base a third-aircraft in Shannon. Gamechanger is a 197 seater aircraft which has 16 percent less emissions and 40 percent less noise than other models, it is valued at $100m or €94m.
Head of Digital and Marketing with Ryanair, Dara Brady was in Shannon to unveil the new schedule. He told a press conference, “we’re the number one carrier in Shannon, we hope to continue to grow here”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Dara stated, “I think our announcement is all about our confidence in investing in Shannon, we’re putting in an extra aircraft that is worth $100m, that aircraft will have up to thirty pilots and cabin crew, it is another aircraft that we wouldn’t have here last winter, those jobs will go to local people and it is a real vote of confidence from Ryanair in the region here”.
Demand for travel on Ryanair’s services from Shannon is high, he noted. “All across our network coming out of COVID, we have seen huge demand for Ryanair’s low fares, there is a huge appetite still for people to travel and they want to do it at the lowest fares possible and Ryanair do that. As you can see from Shannon’s numbers, it has been the fastest growing airport on the island here and that is a result of the airport doing a really good job in terms of managing its operations but it is also on the back of Ryanair putting in another aircraft and driving demand with our low fares”.
As part of its winter schedule, extra services to Alicante and Lanzarote have been added plus the inclusion of Faro and Liverpool at this time of year for the first time.
Brady was optimistic its services at Shannon would continue to grow. “We operate at over 220 odd airports in our network, we’re always joining the dots at different airports, this winter we’ll operate eighteen routes here and we’ve already started to plan for our summer schedule next year. I’d be very confident as we’re always trying to grow our network here and we want to develop a route portfolio to try see new routes come in as we announce our summer schedule”.
He continued, “Our investment in the airport is delivering in-bound passengers as well as bringing people of the region outbound. By having such a strong portfolio here, we’re creating indirect jobs between the transfers, the taxis, the hotels, the shops, that is very important for the region as well as the direct employment we create with our hangar facility which maintains our aircraft, we’ve over 200 people employed in our hangar, the extra aircraft we’ve put in here this winter can create thirty additional jobs in the region”.
Relations between Ryanair and Shannon Airport are bright, he commented. “We’ve a long-term agreement here, we’ve a very good working relationship, that is evident in the growth we’ve had coming out of COVID, we will continue to work hard with the airport to develop our connectivity for the region”.
Key members of Ryanair’s social media team quit their posts at the end of September. Head of Social and Creative Content, Michael Corcoran was among them. When asked by The Clare Echo what impacts their exits have had, Dara responded, “None in terms of an impact on Ryanair. We always have people coming and going, particularly in areas that are marketing led, we’ve an excellent team in place and over 200 people working across our IT, digital and labs, the backbone of that is very much intact, people are always coming and going in our business, we’ve a very strong business model, we encourage people to come in and get an experience”.
