Shannon airport ‘needs viable business plan’

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore insisted yesterday the huge decline in passenger numbers at Shannon will not be tackled by just transferring management of the airport from the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) to the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA).

All major decisions at Shannon are currently taken by the DAA to which the SAA is answerable.

Ryanair on Wednesday announced further reductions on their destinations out of Shannon. From November, the airline will have just six destinations from the airport, compared with 35 in 2008. Up to 2009, the airline accounted for 1.9 million passengers at Shannon. This figure will fall to around 400,000 in 2011.