Calls for Shannon Group legislation

Renewed calls have been made to Transport Minister Leo Varadkar to move on with promised legislation setting up the new Shannon Group to take control of running the airport and creating an aviation hub there.

The new body will also absorb the functions of Shannon Development, which is being disbanded.

Neil Pakey, Shannon Airport CEO, said all the necessary work to make way for the transition had been carried out over the latter part of last year so they would be fit for purpose once the legislation was passed. This was meant to happen at the beginning of the year.

“We are ready. The project director tells me we are 95% transitioned in terms of our readiness. So it is a case of trying to patiently wait for it to come through. We have asked. I think it’s in everybody’s interest that it comes through. I guess it’s the backlog of different types of changes at that level. We are quite optimistic that it is almost ready to be put through.”

Mr Pakey was speaking at the airport to mark the commencement this week of nine routes that are expected to increase passenger numbers by 10%, to over 1.5 million over the coming 12 months.

Shannon was given independence from the Dublin Airport Authority in January 2013 to help tackle its decline. Management has been given a five-year target to increase passenger numbers to 2.5 million by December 2017.

Passenger figures dropped from 3.6m in 2008 to 1.39m in 2012.

Nine Ryanair routes that open this week are set to increase its passenger figures by over 300,000, to 700,000, at Shannon over the next year.

Mr Pakey said: “This week is a turning point. Not since 2005 has Shannon had a week like this.”

Rose Hynes, chair of Shannon Airport, said they were now offering a level of connectivity that is crucial.

Maria Macken, sales and marketing manager UK and Ireland for Ryanair, said they hope to unveil a winter schedule for Shannon in the near future.

Asked why there had been no new routes announced by Ryanair at Cork Airport this year and if there was a problem there, Ms Macken said: “There is nothing wrong with Cork, but we had developments in these (other) independent airports. I am sure there will be news for Cork in the future. But at the moment there was no development in Cork this year.”