*Shannon Airport.
RYANAIR have heralded Shannon Airport as one of the fastest growing airports across their network.
Operating flights to 240 airports across Europe, Ryanair has pinpointed the growth of Shannon Airport’s capacity as a big success following its decision to add three new routes and to base a fourth aircraft in Co Clare.
As part of its winter schedule, Ryanair has boosted its operation at Shannon with flights to Madrid, Madeira and Lapland plus enhanced capacity on six of its existing routes.
Chief Commercial Officer with Ryanair, Jason McGuinness told The Clare Echo, “Ryanair is going to grow its Shannon capacity by twenty percent, we’re adding three new routes to Madrid, Madeira and Lapland and also increasing frequencies on six other popular routes. The Ryanair network is growing by three percent at the minute so twenty percent in Shannon at the minute makes it the fastest growing airport in the Ryanair network and I think it demonstrates our commitment to growth in regional Ireland. We’ve doubled the amount of seats we’re offering in the Irish regional airports pre and post COVID, we will continue to grow in regional Ireland”.
On the impact of an additional aircraft in Shannon, he explained, “It will result in thirty direct jobs for pilots and cabin crew but then there’s the knock-on benefits in additional engineers, maintenance so this morning’s announcement for direct and indirect jobs will add 200 to 250 jobs to the local area here in Shannon”.
Should Shannon continue to see demand for its services, Ryanair will be forced to add more routes and enhance existing services, he admitted. “It is a circle, we are sensible, our mantra is load factor active yield capacity, we do need bums on seats so the people in the area do need to support the airport and if we see demand is strong and load factor is good then we will continue to add capacity here and continue to add routes and more importantly continue to add frequency on existing routes. We’ve a double daily service to London now, there’s a daily service to Manchester, if the local community continue to support the airport we will continue to grow”.
Of frustration to the airline has been the manner in which the Irish Government has ignored their growth plans submitted last year. “We’re proud to be Irish but we’re a pan-European airline, I’m dealing with Governments right across Europe, I was in Poland last week meeting Krakow Airport and the regional Government there who are keen for growth. Krakow Airport has ten million passengers and they plan to double it to twenty million over the next five years so there’s enormous demand for Ryanair capacity across Europe, I would like being Irish and being proud to be Irish we’d like to allocate as much capacity as we can to Ireland but if we’re not getting responses there’s enormous demand across the rest of Europe for Ryanair capacity”.
He continued, “we would be frequently dealing with Governments, some request growth plans from us and we meet with Governments to discuss how we can grow capacity. In the last three weeks, I’ve been in Poland, Albania and Bulgaria, all are very keen to grow capacity and the difference in those countries particularly in Central and Eastern Europe is their capacity is much less than what we have here in Ireland but they have very large populations so they are very keen for growth. We would like to get a reply from the Irish Government to our growth plan, if they don’t there’s plenty of other countries who want Ryanair capacity”.
“Politicians are generally the same across Europe, some are generally more engaged than others, I think it is a little bit slower here in Ireland, take for instance the new government has almost six months of their term done and we still have the issue of the Dublin cap, I would say Irish politicians are a little bit slower than their counterparts particularly in Central and Eastern Europe where those countries are keen to drive their economies, drive economic growth and connectivity to help their small and medium sized businesses,” McGuinness commented.
