Workers ‘could help make Shannon a viable airport’

THE Shannon Airport Authority is missing out on a huge opportunity to tap into innovative proposals which would help make the airport more commercially viable, a union leader said yesterday.

Shannon SIPTU branch president and former Aer Rianta director Pat Fitzgerald said the new Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) had chosen to exclude airport workers while drawing up its business plan for the Transport Minister.

Workers, he said, do not live with their heads in the sand and were aware that you need to generate enough money to sustain a job. He said workers have very positive, realistic proposals which the plan would benefit from.

The SAA plan is understood to propose more than 220 job losses among the 580 permanent workforce at Shannon.

The preparation of the plan is a central part of the process, which will lead to the SAA taking independent control of the management of Shannon early next year.

Since the abolition of Aer Rianta, the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) has held overall responsibility for Shannon. Mr Fitzgerald, a worker director of the DAA and the former Aer Rianta, said he regretted that the SAA had chosen not to bring workers into the consultative process in preparing the business plan.

SAA chairman Pat Shanahan says job cuts are necessary at Shannon to make the airport a viable business.

Mr Fitzgerald said: “I believe if we have to rationalise we will have to. But we have never had an opportunity to look at the figures as stake holders. We are being told there must be job losses at a time when there is a huge increase in business which is projected to continue. I can’t marry the two.

“We say clearly, we are prepared to engage with the authority to have economically sustainable jobs. What ever it takes to get there, we will look at, and engage and involve in a very positive way.”

Mr Fitzgerald said that other than a bullet-point presentation made to the DAA, he had not seen anything about the Shannon business plan.

He said workers could have been engaged by the SAA in drawing up the plan in an innovative manner.

Mr Fitzgerald said the airport has to tailor a commercial structure to achieve viable bottom line operating costs.

At present, he said, the airport is missing out on getting more revenue from ‘meeters and greeters’ visiting the airport to drop off or collect a passenger.

More retail outlets, and well-located bars and restaurants would encourage people to spend more while in the airport terminal building.

He said: “We have the people coming in here, millions of them a year. Where there are people there must be money to be spent. The answers are here and instead of cursing the dark, we should light a candle.”

He said more visitors, particularly families, could be attracted to visit the airport and spend money if there were bars, restaurants and fast food outlets located in a viewing area where incoming and outgoing fights could be seen.

He said such a facility could be provided within the parameters of security requirements.