Cargo hub at Shannon Airport ‘key’ to allowing firms access export markets

The development of a cargo hub at Shannon Airport will be key to not only supporting companies across the west of Ireland but in accessing major emerging markets such as China, a global aviation conference in Limerick heard yesterday.

Patrick Edmond, newly appointed managing director of the Shannon Group’s International Aviation Services Centre (IASC), said there is real potential to develop Shannon into an international crossroads for cargo. He was speaking at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) cargo conference at the Strand Hotel in Limerick.

The conference, attended by more than 350 delegates from around the world, is the first to be held by IATA in the Mid-West since the early 1980s. IATA is the trade association for the world’s airlines, representing some 240 airlines in over 115 countries.