Shannon Airport’s fortunes to ‘turn around’ this year

The chairwoman of Shannon Airport yesterday declared that the airport is now self-sustaining and 2013 is the year that the fortunes of the airport will be turned around.

Rose Hynes was speaking at the launch of a new United Airlines seasonal service to the airline’s Chicago hub from Shannon.

The airport’s recently appointed chief executive, Neil Pakey, takes up his post on Monday and Ms Hynes said the airport will enjoy passenger growth this year.

“We are projecting that we are going to grow the passenger numbers. We are not giving projections at this point — it is just too soon to say.”

Asked would the airport return to profit this year after years of successive losses, she would only say: “This year, we expect that we will turn things around. I am not saying anymore than that.”

The new Shannon entity to be merged with Shannon Development will be able to draw funds from Shannon Development’s annual rental stream that recorded gross revenues of €12m in 2011.

However, legislation allowing for the merger of Shannon Airport with Shannon Development has now been delayed to the autumn.

Ms Hynes revealed that it will be some months after the passing of the legislation before the airport will be able to receive the rent revenues.

Asked how the airport will fund itself before the rent revenues come on stream, Ms Hynes said: “The airport has its own facilities, its own operations.

“It is independent, it is self-sustaining. That’s the way it was always intended and that is the way it is,” she added.

Ms Hynes said: “The airport is on its own, it is an independent airport.”

She confirmed that the airport is in discussions with a lot of airlines on establishing new routes.

She said: “We have a lot of discussions under way at the moment — a lot — we are expecting good news again. We have a lot of things under way at the moment — I just can’t tell you how quickly we can pull it off.”

Ms Hynes said that she was “absolutely thrilled” with the new Chicago route.

She said: “We have worked for quite some time to restore the route. We know that it is going to be successful.”

“There were 110,000 passengers on this route in 2007, it is there, and it is just waiting to be rekindled and ready to go. Passenger growth is our top priority.”

In his comments to reporters, Mr Pakey said: “We have witnessed Shannon Airport’s decline in terms of passenger numbers and now there is a real sense of optimism that it can turn around.