The Chief Executive of Shannon Airport says there’s an immediate solution on the doorstep to rebalance aviation in the airports outside of Dublin.
Shannon Airport CEO Mary Considine says there’s capacity for a further three million passengers. Speaking to Live 95 News the Shannon CEO says that over-reliance on one airport isn’t good for the country: “I think there’s a real opportunity now to look at how we’re using the airport system in the country and while the DAA are going through their planning issues with Dublin Airport”, she said.
“There’s an immediate solution on the doorstep to rebalance aviation and to use the underutilised capacity that exists in the airports outside of Dublin. At Shannon, we could still take an additional 3 million passengers in the terminal here. And then you look at the capacity that’s in the other state airports and regional airports around the country I think we’re a really important part of the solution”.
At the launch of their Winter schedule this week Ryanair’s Head of Communications Jade Kirwan said the airline could double its activity at Shannon over the coming years if the right conditions were in place.
“So we would increase our 1.3 million passengers this year up to about three million passengers over the next six years. So we double our aircraft as well so we currently have three aircraft here. We’d be able to bring that up to about six”, Jade Kirwan said.
Earlier this month, Minister of State at the Department of Transport James Lawless met with Aer Lingus Chief Executive Officer Lynne Embleton and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Donal Moriarty to discuss the passenger cap at Dublin Airport.
Speaking after the meeting, Minister Lawless said: “As I have said previously, my objective is to ensure that connectivity to and from Ireland can continue to grow. I believe this can be achieved in the short to medium term, through our other airports at Cork and Shannon which are ready and able to take more passengers”.
Mary Considine says she doesn’t believe it’s good for the country to have such an over-reliance on one airport: “86% of all air traffic in and out of the country is through Dublin Airport. So I think there’s an opportunity now to look at solutions in the short term to help rebalance that and the Minister put it really well when he said there’s no cap in the airports outside of Dublin”, she said.
“We know this is a significant population base here in the west of Ireland that would like more services from their local airport and we know that a lot of the tourists coming into the country, indeed about 40% of the tourists that come through Dublin Airport are destined for the west of Ireland and they’re congesting the M6, the M7, the M50 coming out of Dublin Airport. So let’s work together to put solutions in place to make sure that there never is an impression that Ireland is closed for business. There’s ample airport capacity and we need to use that as part of the solution”.
