Airport fails to attract service on back of US Customs and Border Protection

THE Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) has failed to attract a scheduled service based on its €21 million US-Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in the 12 months since the service was introduced.

The SAA also declined yesterday to provide the numbers of additional private or corporate jet traffic that has been brought about by the CBP facilities. The service was opened in August 2009. Similar CBP facilities are to open at Dublin Airport’s T2 in November.

However, Shannon Airport director Martin Moroney said yesterday: “We are very pleased with the performance of the US CBP facility at Shannon during its first year of operation. We are already seeing the benefits of CBP in terms of new and expanded services using Shannon, but a facility like this must be judged over the longer term rather than on merely 12 months of operation – particularly during a major downturn in global aviation.”