Cork left in jetstream of Dublin and Shannon

Schuhart

Article in the independent.

Cork left in jetstream of Dublin and Shannon

DUBLIN and Shannon Airports are now growing passenger numbers twice as fast as their southerly neighbours in Cork.

Figures for the first six months of the year show passenger numbers are up 11pc at Dublin, 9.5pc in Shannon and just 4.5pc in Cork Airport.

Dublin remains the largest airport by far, racking up some 10.8m passengers in the first six months, more than the total number of passengers who used the airport in 1997.

The half year growth means that on average the airport has been handling an extra 6,000 passengers per day in 2007, compared with the 2006 figures.

Cork Airport's half year passenger total came in at 1.4m, with the airport recording better growth (+9.5pc) in the month of June. Cork's growth has been afflicted by a long running row over the airport's debt, largely down to its new €160m terminal.

Ryanair has been particular scathing of the new terminal, and has ruled out adding any new services to the airport.

Over at Shannon, more than 1.4m international passengers used the airport in the first half of 2007.

Transatlantic traffic dropped off by some 5pc, following the withdrawal of American Airlines on the back of a new deal on European/US flying, which removes the need for aircraft to touch down in Shannon.

The fall-off in transatlantic business, however, was more than compensated for by a 16pc rise in short haul passengers, the airport said.

Is it fair to say at this stage that national policy on airports, if there is one, has vanished up its hole. Was there any point to attempting a breakup of Aer Rianta? Will it ever actually happen now? And what are we doing putting money into places like Knock, so that budget carriers can lose their passengers for a week, while air access to Cork seems to be less than buoyant?

Which, I know, is a lot of questions. Maybe I'll just summarise. Airports, Ted. What's that all about?

invincibleirish

its ridiculous alright,why a shed in the middle of nowhere with a town bolted onto it is given preferential treatment over cork airport and dublin airport is beyond comprehension,dublin should have its new terminal now,cork should be operating without the massive debt it had no choice in receiving,its politics,all politics......

cornbb

invincibleirish wrote:

its ridiculous alright,why a shed in the middle of nowhere with a town bolted onto it is given preferential treatment over cork airport and dublin airport is beyond comprehension,dublin should have its new terminal now,cork should be operating without the massive debt it had no choice in receiving,its politics,all politics......

Shannon is hardly that - its well-located, has excellent facilities, plenty of routes and very little of the BS that is associated with flying out of Dublin (overcrowding, traffic etc)

Chris_533976

Shannon will become more successful once the N20 and N18 upgrades are done. Then it'll be ~one hour (or just over) drive from both Cork and Galway.

Zoney

Chris_533976 wrote:

Shannon will become more successful once the N20 and N18 upgrades are done. Then it'll be ~one hour (or just over) drive from both Cork and Galway.

Don't forget the N7: the DC/motorway from Limerick to Nenagh (and later beyond) and completion of Limerick Southern Ring Road + Shannon crossing.

Shannon's cachement area has been artificially limited in the past by not having any decent transport connections beyond a dual carriageway to Limerick. Even that took till 1989 or so to finish - nevermind Shannon Town only being bypassed in 2004 or so.

Hopefully once there's dual carriageway all the way from Shannon to Galway, Cork and Laois, the Midwest's plan for Western domination can come to fruition. Upgrade of the N24 through Tipperary to 2+1 will be a further step too.

OTK

The stopover legally ends in March 2008.
The Iraq war will likely conclude in 2008.

These two events will probably reduce shannon passenger numbers below commercial viability unless they come up with another wheeze.

There are 7 international airports in the west of ireland.

The stopover policy is explained here: http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/0096/D.0096.194504190030.html
Due to the limitations of aircraft technology at the time, it was cheaper to refuel in Shannon for a transatlantic flight, than to carry a full load of fuel from the US to Europe. Policy was about taxing transit passengers because locally generated traffic was likely to be very low. (There were only 16 cross atlantic phone lines at the time.)

Once those aircraft limitations were surpassed, Shannon was needed much less. But a lot of money had been invested in Shannon and there were local electoral concerns.

Poor roads and rail services have helped airports in the west of ireland as has PSO state aid to airlines servicing 5 of the 7 western international airports. But land transport options are now improving and the PSO cash will likely be stopped by the EU.

dowlingm

Ideally SNN would be a shed with a large urban centre and a rail line attached rather than the rather low-rise uninteresting townscape it currently has. Clare County Council has done very little in my view to make Shannon an anchor point for the county and thus a substantial contributor to its own airport's catchment.

lostexpectation

shannon is transatlantic eurotrade and military dublin is our capital cork needs a niche, drugs or people smuggling perhaps.

dowlingm

unfortunately most countries wouldn't allow Clonakilty black pud imports... otherwise there'd be A380Fs full of it leaving every day.

Schuhart

Working on that basis that the only way of Shannon getting business is to take it off someone else, the potential pool seems to be Galway Airport with about 200,000 passengers per annum, Knock Airport with about 600,000 and Farrenfore with something of the order of 400,000. I suppose it really comes down to Shannon finding something that compels those passengers to use it instead.

Tom Dunne

Schuhart wrote:

Working on that basis that the only way of Shannon getting business is to take it off someone else, the potential pool seems to be Galway Airport with about 200,000 passengers per annum, Knock Airport with about 600,000 and Farrenfore with something of the order of 400,000. I suppose it really comes down to Shannon finding something that compels those passengers to use it instead.

What about cargo? I read somehwere a while back about the lack of vision for Shannon and that it could potentially be a hub between East and West for cargo, if only the powers that be realised it.

daveirl

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lostexpectation

tom dunne wrote:

What about cargo? I read somehwere a while back about the lack of vision for Shannon and that it could potentially be a hub between East and West for cargo, if only the powers that be realised it.

isn't that what it already is and was set up to do?

dowlingm

or when a lorry speeds through the shannon tunnel and shags it up like the JLT every so often.

Schuhart

tom dunne wrote:

What about cargo? I read somehwere a while back about the lack of vision for Shannon and that it could potentially be a hub between East and West for cargo, if only the powers that be realised it.

In fairness, I take it that the ‘powers that be’ are Shannon Development. In 2004 it did announce that it was doing a study on Shannon becoming something called a National Agile Logistics Hub, but it seems to have vanished off the radar.

I honestly don’t know if it’s a runner or not – I just have that feeling that its one of these ‘I have a wedding dress, let’s get married’ proposals. Is there any suggestion that some investment has been denied to Shannon Airport? My picture is more that they got an upgraded terminal to cater for a non-existent increase in trans Atlantic passengers.

Do we know what, if any, cargo-related physical facilities are meant to be missing from Shannon? Or is it just that nebulous ‘the State should promote Shannon as a cargo hub’ kind of idea that sometimes infects Irish public debate? Presumably Europeans, for the sake of argument, cannot be compelled to use Shannon as a cargo hub if they cannot understand what benefit it brings, other than giving some workfare to a packed payroll in Clare.

I’ll freely admit I’ve a jaundiced attitude towards Shannon and a half assumption that any proposal that any Shannon related body would make would be a self serving irrelevance. Then, in fairness, they have to expect some legacy of incredulity for decades of harm to the national economy perpetrated by the Stopover. If there's a business case for a cargo hub, presumably they can just feck off and get the business in and do something for the rest of the community for a change.

daveirl

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highlydebased

Schuhart- There will be an increase in transatlantic services. The new extension will attract airlines and new destinations for various reasons

professore

Don't worry lads - there will be far less air travel in a few years due to peak oil - so back to the old boats again.

MLM

Nuts! We build the country's best airport, at a cost of 220 million euro, then deliberately cripple it. I'd say there's an awful lot of Polish, English, and Lithuanian immigrants, living here, asking themselves: "How the hell did these people ever get a Tiger economy?"

daveirl

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Tom Dunne

Neon-Circles wrote:

Schuhart- There will be an increase in transatlantic services. The new extension will attract airlines and new destinations for various reasons

Please do elaborate, I am genuinely interested.

Calina

daveirl wrote:

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not necessarily. Business has tended to use technology to replace what it deems to be less essential travel, video conferencing etc...the amount of business travel afair dropped off considerably post 2001.

Businesses have a bottom line too...if travel becomes too expensive they will adapt around the need for it.

lostexpectation

daveirl wrote:

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no the im an international jetsetter me why shoudln't I fly several times a week business will need to be reduced.

highlydebased

tom dunne wrote:

Please do elaborate, I am genuinely interested.

The airport claim that the new border control and US customs facilities will enable airlines to fly from Shannon to any regional US Airport, as all paperwork etc will be taken of in Shannon. Right now only border control is taken care of in Shannon

The new improved facilities may also attract both airlines and pax. A new arrivals concourse is planned......the current one is dire.

ian_m

With the rise of the fastest growing and largest airline in europe, Ryanair its time the right people made some good decisions regarding the development of airports in Ireland. Now is the time to make the most of it. We need more investment in our airports.

They are an extremely important part of the Irish infrastructural system. Dublin airport is too small for the traffic it is handling. A second runway should be built already aswell as another terminal. Airlines should be encouraged to use other airports in the country. That and a co-ordinated development with business and tourist interests.

With Ryanair launching across the Atlantic in the near future, Ireland should be prepared for this with airports to match the potential growth that this will have, let alone to match the growth that has already taken place.
I wonder are the authorities merely running these airports just to get by or are they seriously concerned with the future and investment in them as a serious business. I don't feel there is enough effort.

Victor

ian_m wrote:

A second runway should be built already aswell as another terminal.

Both are working their way through the planning process.

With Ryanair launching across the Atlantic in the near future

Unlikely to ever happen. Why do you suggest it?

MLM

ian_m wrote:

Airlines should be encouraged to use other airports in the country. That and a co-ordinated development with business and tourist interests.

Agreed, but considering the farcical situation that has been allowed to develop with Cork Airport I don't think its possible.

McSpud

The new Cork airport Terminal has a capacity of 3m so are current 1.6m & only 4.5% growth it should remain the only significant infrastructure in the state that can cope for future demand for some time to come.

Cork airport charges

Dublin airport charges

Cork & Dublin charge approx 7 euro per passenger whereas Shannon charges only 4. Is there any wonder Cork Airport can't get new flights.

:rolleyes:

Schuhart

I've said before and I'll say again it shows a bizarre set of priorities where the Government got EU state aid clearance so they could chuck €85 million at the small regional airports, but they won't do the same so that they could clear Cork's debt without crippling Dublin and really do something for regional development.

Victor

On charging, Dublin has pulled its discount scheme for new routes.