Shannon link gets a muted send-off

IS today the last flight? one man asked a woman at the check-in desk before the 7.40am flight to Heathrow on Friday.

“No, the last one is Sunday,” she replied politely.

“Will there be a bit of celebration so?”

“No, I wouldn’t say there will be any celebration,” comes the reply.

Although funerals are partly a toast to the life gone before, Shannon Airport was in no mood to party at the weekend.

The atmosphere matched the dark January weather as the airport bid a limp farewell to its historical link with one of the world’s great hubs.

Staff admitted the initial energy of sunny August street protests had dwindled as thoughts turned to their future.

“It [the campaign to save the route] went on a long time but we knew it was done and dusted when things didn’t happen during the controversy.

“The company looked for voluntary redundancies and people are deciding what to do. It is all really sad.

“It is more than just a job. When you look at the flight it is all familiar faces, we would know everybody by first names and you know it will affect them too,” a staff member said.

For months, the workers in Shannon accepted that, last night, Ciara — one of the airline’s Airbus A320s — would make her final trip from Heathrow and quickly flare up her engines for a new life in Belfast. That service begins today.

But, at Shannon, it was a staggered goodbye.

Numbers had declined on the Shannon route since Christmas as passengers could not book return flights.

Friday was the last day for its community of business commuters to make the one-hour journey. On the prized early morning flight only 91 of its 174 seats were occupied.

The business people had already realised life with the famous connectivity of the service was over.

The final early morning weekday flight touched down at 8.49am on Friday to allow work colleagues Gearóid Murphy and Emmett Devereux walk across Heathrow to catch a connection to Lisbon.

The return journey they are due to make, today, to Limerick has compounded their frustration at Aer Lingus’s decision to axe the Shannon service.

“We could not book a return so the best option was to connect to Dublin and then go across the city to catch the train to Limerick. Either that or wait hours for a flight to Shannon.

“We have two American businessmen coming back with us and they cannot understand how business is done like this,” explained Mr Murphy.

The two men are part of a network of regular commuters.

Mr Murphy said, in his wife’s company, at least 20 people used to fly Shannon-Heathrow every week.

The prospect of a Cityjet link to Paris Charles de Gaulle, opening on February 4, is their only hope.

“We are screwed for meeting people in London directly.

“There is the Paris service now and we have to try support it. It is ridiculous it has come to that but we have no choice,” said Mr Devereux.

A Cityjet spokesman said business sales for its Paris service were strong but it would not release figures until after a marketing campaign next week.

Regardless of its success it will not affect people linking with London directly who on Friday were on time to catch the Heathrow Express and arrive in Paddington Station at 9.35am.

Passenger Dr Fintan Wallace, who is based in Limerick, said members of his profession will feel the effects.

“It will hit us for conferences and events. We are coming back from Heathrow tonight [Friday] but if we were going to other airports you nearly have to factor in an overnight stay,” he said.

For others, their commute to work will be disrupted.

Christopher Lowe is from Reading in Britain but works in Shannon. For 18 months he has flown to Ireland early in the week and returned to Britain on Friday.

“The flight is almost always full. It is a lovely service, the staff are great and the planes are always on time,” said Mr Lowe.

The extra seats offered by Ryanair to London’s other airports will not guarantee the same travel times.

Nor will they benefit Maureen Donohue from Galway.

While she waited in Heathrow for the 7.45pm flight back to Shannon she explained the alternative options for her regular trip across the Irish Sea: “I know with the company I work for in Galway, a big reason for it bringing some of its operations here was the Heathrow link.

“Chances for promotions within the company are going to be a lot harder if we are remote,” she said.

Instead of her unusual journey via Heathrow, Ms Donohue thinks the best alternative will be the Galway to Luton service and then travel the 75km to her company’s headquarters in Heathrow.

However, on Friday’s late flight to Shannon even nostalgia could not disguise the downside to Heathrow, recognised among the world’s most congested airports. The aircraft Ciara crept along the taxiway waiting for half an hour as a stream of British Airways flights took off from one of only two main runways, which serve almost 60 million flights per year.

Despite take-off delays and panic-station security, the allure of the Heathrow service was still obvious for Limerick man Padhraic Ryan and his travel partner Ciara Lubanyi coming back from a holiday in Dubai.

“I would pay the extra money to go from Shannon. It is only 30 minutes away and you don’t have to worry about expensive parking in Dublin or the journey up there,” explained Mr Ryan.

From today, that trip to Dublin and Cork or an alternative commute from Stansted and Gatwick is the reality for west-coast travellers like Mr Ryan.

Because last night for the final time the aircraft Ciara landed in Shannon to end a proud record of service between Britain’s busiest airport and the stretch of reclaimed land on the busy banks of the Shannon estuary.

Without fanfare or festival she was to cross the border into the North and begin a more competitive life from Belfast this morning.