Shannon ‘in utter crisis’ as flights down 25% in July

SHANNON Airport is in “utter crisis”, according to a leading airline analyst as latest figures show traffic levels plunging.

Bloxham stockbroker’s Joe Gill was speaking after figures showed traffic levels at Shannon Airport fell 28% in July.

Flight activity levels at Dublin were down 0.7% year-on-year and 3.6% at Cork.

“The numbers at Dublin and Cork mark some stability, at albeit lower levels, after 18 months of double digit falls. Shannon, however, remains in utter crisis with no sign of a recovery,” said Mr Gill.

According to the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) although commercial terminal traffic at the airports is continuing to decline against comparable figures in 2009, the rate of decline during 2010 continued to recede last month.

The IAA said en route traffic movements in Irish-controlled airspace for July increased almost 6% on comparable figures for July last year.

They said this continues a positive trend during 2010 with en route traffic movements also showing growth of 5.1% in March 2010 and 1.6% in June 2010.

It also said the latest available traffic forecast from Eurocontrol estimate that European traffic will experience a growth rate of 0.8% for 2010.

According to the IAA there were 7,800 commercial flights at Shannon in the first six months of the year, 6,480 fewer than the same period last year, representing a 45% drop.

In the same period, Cork fell by almost 12%, and Dublin by 15%.

Analysts have said that the main reasons for such a decline in traffic at Shannon is due to Ryanair’s decision to pull many of its flights to holiday destinations, the loss of some transatlantic services and fewer stopovers by US military aircraft.