Airlines and customers should look west as one way of overcoming the problems posed by Dublin Airport’s passenger cap, according to the CEO of Shannon Airport Group.
Yesterday operator daa said Dublin Airport looked set to breach its cap of 32 million passengers this year.
With no change to the cap likely in the immediate future, growth at the airport is likely to be restricted next year too.
“There is capacity to grow [in Shannon] and as an airport we have the infrastructure, we have the team in place,” said Mary Considine, CEO of Shannon Airport Group, who was speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“I think we can play a really important part of the solution to addressing the current capacity shortage as the daa work through their own planning process.
“It’s really important as a country that we do everything, and work together, to ensure that no business is lost to the country and we get the business to where it needs to get to.”
She said it was not normal for one airport to have 86% market share, and the industry needed to work together to rebalance the sector and boost traffic at other facilities.
Shannon Airport Group is today marking ten years since its establishment, after the airport was made independent of the then Dublin Airport Authority.
Since then its passenger numbers have grown by more than 22%, and are set to pass the 2 million mark this year.
That would be the first time Shannon Airport has passed this threshold since 2009.
The group has also undertaken significant upgrade programmes over the past decade, with €178m invested in upgrades across the airport and its commercial property business.
“What we’ve achieved in the last decade has been significant traffic growth,” Ms Considine said. “We’ve invest heavily to upgrade the airport infrastructure, enhance the passenger experience, develop our property portfolio, and all in all that means we’re a significant contributor to the national economy.”
But despite the pick up in passenger numbers in the past decade, Shannon Airport’s growth has lagged behind both Dublin and Cork Airports.
Ms Considine said the airport was well-positioned to close that gap, and it was in discussions with industry players to achieve that.
“What we’re saying to airlines is that there’s under-utilised capacity in the other airports in the country – particularly Shannon,” she said. “We have the longest runway in the country, we have CBP [customs and border protection] for the US market which is very important to Ireland.
“This year we have 33 routes from the airport, we’ve seen significant growth, particularly in the last couple of years since Covid.”
Part of that growth, she says, has come from the positive word of mouth about the customer experience at Shannon Airport – while it also represents a practical alternative to many travellers.
“I think people increasingly realise how easy it is to use Shannon Airport, and I think as a state we need to move away from over-reliance on one airport, use the infrastructure and bring people closer to where they ultimately want to get to,” Ms Considine said.
