‘New belief’ fires optimism at Shannon Airport
Neil Pakey said his task in leading the growth of passenger numbers from 1.4m a year to 2.5m over the next five years presented a big opportunity.
“Shannon has a very strong brand, internationally, and we should not underestimate this.”
Scottish-born Mr Pakey, who takes up his post on Jun 10, was at Shannon yesterday for the reinstatement of a daily summer service to Philadelphia by US Airways which was dropped four years ago.
During his time as managing director of John Lennon Airport in Liverpool between 2002 and 2010, passenger numbers increased there from 875,000 to over 5.5m.
Mr Pakey said there was great optimism at Shannon now that it had independence.
“Everybody in the whole region has a stake in the airport and the service we bring. So it’s going to be a very exciting time for me.”
Since Shannon was given independence from the DAA on Jan 1, a new relationship with Ryanair has led to the opening of one new service.
“I had a nice text message from Michael (O’Leary) wishing me all the best. Good relationships with the airlines is going to be very important for me and the team here.”
Shannon passenger numbers plummeted over the past three years with a souring of relations between Mr O’Leary and the DAA.
Mr Pakey said: “At Liverpool, in marketing terms, we were a challenger brand. We were the airport challenging the big capital city ones. Here in Shannon, it’s a similar thing. The dependency on working with the stakeholders across the community is massive.
“We are all in it together. There is no sense of the airport being superior to everybody or a monopoly, it’s actually a huge partnership for the whole region and everybody has a part to play.”
Mr Pakey said a deciding factor in taking up the appointment was the new board put in place by Transport Minister Leo Varadkar.
“The new board and the new belief here stood out. For a long time Shannon has been part of a wider grouping. There’s some good things about that, but actually having that independence and seeing the quality of the board, it’s dynamic, talking to the board really did excite me.”
Rose Hynes, chairman of the Shannon board, compared the Philadelphia service opened yesterday by US Airways to the setting of an acorn ‘from which many things will grow’.
Suzanne Boda, US Airways senior vice president, said the service will give US travellers an additional option to reach Ireland.
- A Dutch airline, in association with Falcon Holidays, is to launch charter flights from Cork Airport to Spanish holiday hotspots this summer while a new service out of Waterford Airport will be a godsend for soccer fans.
ArkeFly is to make 32,000 package holiday seats available for passengers departing Cork from Jun 7 to Aug 30.
Destinations will include Lanzarote, Malaga, Las Palmas, Palma de Mallorca and Reus.
ArkeFly also announced it will be providing 3,700 seats from Holland into Cork through Dutch specialist tour operator KRAS.
Cork Airport director Niall MacCarthy said the airport was delighted to be able to offer passengers additional choice this summer with the introduction of a new Dutch airline.
“The summer is our busiest period here at Cork Airport and this year is looking particularly positive, with 2,000,000 seats on sale to 50 destinations direct from Cork.”
Meanwhile, British airline Flybe flew from Manchester to Waterford Airport for the first time yesterday.
It will operate the new Manchester route four times weekly from Waterford.
The connection will also allow passengers travel on to other cities using one booking, such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Southampton, Paris and Dusseldorf.
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