Shannon chief refuses to discuss DAA bonus
Brian O’Connell who also sits on the board of the DAA, which sanctioned the €106,000 bonus, repeatedly declined to discuss the matter when he was pressed on the subject in Limerick yesterday.
Mr O’Connell was speaking at the two-day Financial Solutions for Business Aircraft (FiSBA) conference on business aviation hosted by Shannon Airport and Shannon Development.
When asked if he was aware of any contact or consultations between the board of the DAA and its chief executive Declan Collier last weekend Mr O’Connell refused to answer insisting he was only at the conference to discuss Shannon Airport.
Earlier this week Mr Collier agreed to forgo the controversial bonus, however Mr O’Connell would not be drawn on the subject yesterday.
“I’m speaking this morning as chairman of Shannon Airport and I’m not going to discuss my position on the DAA,” he said.
When pressed further on the matter he replied: “I’m talking this morning in relation to Shannon Airport and that’s where I’m at. If you wish to talk on the DAA well then I think it’s appropriate to do it with either the chairman of the DAA and or with the appropriate people…”
In relation to the collapse in passenger numbers at Shannon Airport, where figures have dropped from an all time high of 3.6 million to 1.7 million, Mr O’Connell said the board was working to improve connectivity.
“We are in a different world now than we were five years ago in relation to those figures. We are working with airlines to see how we can get connectivity,” he said.
Mr O’Connell said there was good connectivity from Shannon into Britain but he admitted services to Europe were posing a major challenge for the airport.
“We have a major problem and challenge in relation to Europe and we are working on that at this point in time to see how we can overcome that and get plugged into services hopefully by next year,” he added.
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