Shannon Airport Prepares for Open Skies

Commenting on the recent announcement that a EU-US Open Skies draft agreement has been reached Pat Shanahan, Chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority made the following comments:

“Shannon Airport has been preparing for Open Skies for some time and has built up an extensive range of transatlantic services which carried almost 800,000 passengers in 2006. The challenge Shannon now faces is that we must persuade airlines to retain their current level of services and develop new ones in an open market”. He added “I believe that while Open Skies poses a challenge to Shannon Airport, the retention and further development of year-round transatlantic services and passenger/cargo traffic is achievable supported by a strong US marketing campaign, improvements in road and rail infrastructure in the region and a substantial reduction in our cost base”.

Mr. Shanahan stated that Shannon Airport has the required facilities and capacity to service further growth of transatlantic services and it is the authority’s intention to further enhance those facilities with the establishment of a Full US Customs and Border Protection Inspection post in 2008 which would provide Shannon with an essential competitive advantage over other European Airports when developing additional services.

Shannon has the potential to develop as a financially and operationally viable airport and the benefits to the Airport and wider region of the huge boost in passenger numbers over the past two years are very evident. However Mr. Shanahan again highlighted the urgency to address the airports uncompetitive cost base in order to meet the business and operational needs of the airport. “We can then begin to concentrate our efforts on ensuring we become more competitive in our airport charges and our incentive schemes” he said.

In conclusion Mr. Shanahan stated, “We believe we have developed a distinctive West of Ireland market both to and from the US. It is time for a concerted effort by key stakeholders in the West of Ireland supported by a substantial government tourism-marketing fund to market Shannon throughout the US. It is our aim to reach 1 million transatlantic passengers per annum within 5 years of the commencement of Open Skies”.
 
ENDS

6th March 2007