Shannon Airport to lease out aviation fuel farm

SHANNON AIRPORT plans to lease out its aviation fuel farm to a private operator.

Tanks located at a jetty on the perimeter of the airport can hold 33,000 metric tonnes of aviation fuel.

A spokeswoman for the Shannon Airport Authority said it is their plan to enter a long-term lease with a private operator.

A number of private companies including Texaco and Total have storage facilities at Shannon.

The airport built its own fuel farm in the 1970s to facilitate the Soviet carrier, Aeroflot. That airline was then one of the airport’s biggest customers using it as a stopover for its South American, and Cuban services.

Due to the economic climate in the USSR, Aeroflot entered an arrangement whereby it shipped in aviation fuel to Shannon and used it in a barter arrangement to pay it’s airport charges rather than having to use hard currency. The airport authority, Aer Rianta, then sold on the fuel to other airlines.

Shannon now wants to free itself from the fuel sales business. The airport spokeswoman said: “We see this is non-core activity which is very specialist.”