Airport manager quits post over Heathrow route withdrawal

One of Shannon Airport’s most senior managers tonight said he was resigning his day to day duties after being kept in the dark about the withdrawal of the Heathrow route.

Pat Shanahan, the airport’s executive chairman, insisted his position was untenable because the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) didn’t tell him immediately about the Aer Lingus pull-out.

However, he is to remain on as the as non-executive chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority overseeing the airport’s moves towards independence from the DAA.

“Unfortunately my position became untenable because there is a conflict in interest between the DAA and ourselves, particularly in the fact that they didn’t tell us this information,” he said.

“They held this information from us for a period of six to eight weeks.”

Mr Shanahan, who was appointed executive chairman in September last year, believes the airport could have acted if it was told early enough about the plan to move the Heathrow slots to Belfast.

“There were a number of reasons explained to me about confidentiality and [how] it was difficult for them to divulge the information,” he said.

“However it was very critical material information that we needed as an airport and we needed to develop and grow our business.

“If we had known we may have been able to do something about it,” he added.