More Bad News for Shannon Airport?

um7y1h83ge06nx

An article today that Leipzig Airport in Germany has put in a rival bid for Shannon's military business.

Someone needs to get the finger out fast and sort out Shannon.


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rival-bid-for-us-troop-air-traffic-a-blow-to-shannon-2344433.html

knockon

Ruben Creamy Padlock wrote: »

An article today that Leipzig Airport in Germany has put in a rival bid for Shannon's military business.

Someone needs to get the finger out fast and sort out Shannon.


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/rival-bid-for-us-troop-air-traffic-a-blow-to-shannon-2344433.html

I can tell you it won't be Dept Jan O Sullivan who think more about Ahmed or Jousef in Bagdad or Kabul than she she does about her own constitutents. I flagged this last year and she replied....

Dear ,

I have been strongly involved in all of the campaigns to retain routes in Shannon over the years and have argued in the Dáil and in the media that a strong Shannon Airport is vital for the country as a whole and particularly for this region.

However, I do not believe that strength should have to rely on soldiers going to a war or the transfer of prisoners held in a way that violates international law. I think it is wrong that people working in Shannon and in the region should have to depend on that kind of traffic. What do we do when the war is over and when rendition is outlawed?
My view, and I accept that others don't agree with me, is that we have to fight for Shannon's role as a civilian airport, the gateway to the West of Ireland and as a balance to the power of the East coast lobby, rather than depending on the US, or any other army. I fully respect that a lot of people in the Mid-West don't agree with me on this issue but I hold it sincerely and cannot change that,

best wishes,
Jan


Whatever your views on military (actuallty they are passenger B757's MD11's etc) aircraft using the airport any reduction is any traffic is bad news for the region.

Raiser

Jan O'Sullivan lost all of my respect around the time of She supported her Shannon RFC Mate and came out with lines something like its ok to verbally abuse and hound amateur Referees if you're passionate about Rugby etc. etc. - Typical Party Politics bullshít where right and wrong come in 9th place behind backing up your W@nker Mates.

- But that said, maybe if you spent some time in the cargo hold of a Boeing 747 wearing an orange jump suit with your head shackled to your ankles and had to endure 96 hours of humiliation and psychosocial/physical/sexual abuse from Brad, Chad, Lance and Cindy on the way to somewhere like Guantanamo without a trial or any legal or other representation you'd care a little less about having the US Military buying knick knacks and cappuccinos in Shannon Airport?

MarkR

Might be the thing to give the airport a kick in the arse it needs. Whoever has the authority needs to be much more aggressive in promotion Shannon airport.

If it means a sweetheart deal with Ryanair, then so be it. Smaller fees from more flights must be better then bigger fees from far fewer flights.

Thank f*** i'm not working in the airport, but a lot of people are.

knockon

Raiser wrote: »

Jan O'Sullivan lost all of my respect around the time of She supported her Shannon RFC Mate and came out with lines something like its ok to verbally abuse and hound amateur Referees if you're passionate about Rugby etc. etc. - Typical Party Politics bullshít where right and wrong come in 9th place behind backing up your W@nker Mates.



- But that said, maybe if you spent some time in the cargo hold of a Boeing 747 wearing an orange jump suit with your head shackled to your ankles and had to endure 96 hours of humiliation and psychosocial/physical/sexual abuse from Brad, Chad, Lance and Cindy on the way to somewhere like Guantanamo without a trial or any legal or other representation you'd care a little less about having the US Military buying knick knacks and cappuccinos in Shannon Airport?

I was talking about aircraft carrying US Military Personnel. Don't really care who may or may not have been renditioned through Shannon or what the guy in the orange jump suit is doing. I want food on my table and to be able to pay the mortgage. The Dollar does'nt have ethics. The problem I have is people like yourself are great for standing up for the rights of some guy who may or may not be shackled and may or may not be going through Shannon and not focusing on the real proplem which is the reduction in US traffic and the direct effect on employment in the Mid West. I'll bet a hell of a lot of people reading this know someone either in the Airport or in some service industry who would be crying out for some of this business.

Let me give you an example as my family circumstances have been directly effected by the reduction in traffic. World Airways had crews staying overnight in Limerick every night of the week. That was worth €190,000.00 in business to that Hotel per annum and thats only 1 airline. Not to mind the money they were spending in restaurants, bars and local transport van that brought them two and from the airport. We had Sun Country, American Transair, World Airways to name only 3 airlines.

In my day in SNN a 747 on a transit stop was worth n excess of €2,500 on charges not including fuel to Aer Rianta. "What am I carrying?" "I don't give a sh"t but I am going to fill you up with 70 tons of Jet A1"

Raiser

knockon wrote: »

Don't really care who may or may not have been renditioned through Shannon or what the guy in the orange jump suit is doing.

That's Human nature for you, we are selfish Creatures after all - Its a stark fact that you don't care about Human rights abuses on your doorstep and its a plainer fact that People are going to care even less about your personal financial situation in light of this......

- Best of luck with your "I'm allright Jack" approach though

knockon

Raiser wrote: »

That's Human nature for you, we are selfish Creatures after all - Its a stark fact that you don't care about Human rights abuses on your doorstep and its a plainer fact that People are going to care even less about your personal financial situation in light of this......

- Best of luck with your "I'm allright Jack" approach though

I am probably one of thousands that would be in similar shoes over Shannons debacle. Selfish? Thats your opinion. Maybe you should join Boyd Barrett and the other 3 anti war protestors at the Shannon "peace camp" seeing that folks like yourself usually great at preaching about how it's always someone elses fault. You probably were'nt saying a lot when we had Aeroflot bringing their "war machines" through SNN in the late 70's and early 80's

um7y1h83ge06nx

This will have much further reprecussions that just affecting SNN's employees. If the airport collapses it will affect all business in the Shannon region. If you can't get in or out of the area easily, Limerick won't be an attractive bet for a lot of business looking to locate here.

For example the company I work for would have a lot of employees travelling between Limerick and the Norh of England. If these routes went we would have to travel to Cork, longer drive time and more mileage expenses having to be handed out.

A former company I worked for, Analog Devices, would have loads of people coming and going to and from the Limerick plant at any time.

It will cause problems holding on to current employers, not to mnd try to encourage new investment.

Kess73

knockon wrote: »

I am probably one of thousands that would be in similar shoes over Shannons debacle. Selfish? Thats your opinion. Maybe you should join Boyd Barrett and the other 3 anti war protestors at the Shannon "peace camp" seeing that folks like yourself usually great at preaching about how it's always someone elses fault. You probably were'nt saying a lot when we had Aeroflot bringing their "war machines" through SNN in the late 70's and early 80's

Actually that is a good point, Shannon has long been used by various militarys, including those in active combat at the time, and there was very little by way of protest about it from people for decades.

Through my father's job, well old job as he is now retired, I have been around airports most of my life and the airports I have the most experience of are John Lennon Airport(Formally Speake airport), Stuttgart airport, and Shannon airport.


For as long as I can remember the military flights into Shannon have been a mainstay of it's income, and in current times that mainstay has moved to become pretty much what keeps the airport afloat.

Shannon simply cannot afford to have that contract go to Germany. Shannon does not have people in it that look at the bigger picture, nor does it have a board that looks after anything other than feathering their own nests.

If Shannon goes, then people better expect a serious knock on effect in the region in terms of job losses as the airport facilitates a lot more than the obvious things that would spring to mind.

Tourism in the region would be another thing, albeit an obvious one, that would be hit hard and even things like Munster games at Thomond Park could be affected as crowds may drop if away fans have to fly to Cork or Dublin and then drive to Limerick for a game. Hell maybe they could just go ahead and make Musgrave Park the venue for all home games that involve a team with fans travelling from abroad and just give that revenue to Cork.

Limerick is like a dying town as is, it sure as hell does not need any extra help in going downhill and I am sure that all the other towns in the region would feel the same way about Shannon potentially getting to the stage where it goes belly up.

In my eyes anything that could deal a hammerblow to Shannon airport would deal just as brutal a blow to the surrounding region, maybe moreso, and as such it should be resisted strongly by all those with the power to do so.

Raiser

knockon wrote: »

seeing that folks like yourself usually great at preaching about how it's always someone elses fault. You probably were'nt saying a lot when we had Aeroflot bringing their "war machines" through SNN in the late 70's and early 80's

Ha? You don't know anything about me, but I'll tell you one thing so you're not totally clueless - in the late 70's I was not particularity strong on ethics or economics and toy planes would have been as far as it went!!!

- Anyhow, since when has quoting legacy precedents ever made a strong defence or argument?

Also on balance, of course the decline of Shannon Airport seemingly through gross mismanagement and apathy from any number of sources is a sad and depressing thing to see - Hopefully things will improve soon.

phill106

MarkR wrote: »

Whoever has the authority needs to be much more aggressive in promotion Shannon airport.

The dublin airport authority run shannon, an airport that competes against dublin.
We are f*cked...
Shannon needs to be run by shannon.

highlydebased

The World Airways contract was lost to Leipzig years ago- I think there was more than meets the eye to that one though.
ATA went out of business
North American have disappeared quietly, presumably to Leipzig too
Only Omni left. During the ash crisis they wanted to move operations permanently to Oslo which was short sighted however Shannon wooed them back.

Obviously if the contract has been signed in Leipzig etc at this stage there is little else that can be done. However this business it better than no business and Shannon needs to get on it pretty promptly

Also, the comments about Shannon not "being more attractive" and Limerick not getting investment because of less flights etc...the majority of flights that operated would have been to little use to the majority of large companies- seeing as they mostly send people through Heathrow etc and then to Shannon. Therefore to me it remains as attractive. We also retain the same level of cargo service at the moment.

seachto7

was looking at flights out of shannon with ryanair, and it's a disaster, all "Kiss me @rse" destinations. Alas, I feel Shannon may be a sinking ship.....
a pity, as people in the mid west will have to travel everywhere if they want to get a decent flight out.....

flutered

45 years ago i first flew from shannon to new york, with twa, more than half the passengers were uniformed us service men returning home after a stint in germany, how long before that were military personell using the airport i dunno, in good and bad times we badly need the buck the euro, the pic of lzzie on the back of a note, commerce has no morals, no religon, plus most definately no political correctioness, we need jobs, we need investment, we need everything to be working for us, we need them for ourselves, our children, our grand children, their grandchildren even, not cutting off our noses to spite our face, where is the next jim kemmy, the next donnagh o malley, just take a look at our hospital, it is not so long ago it was down graded in order to up grade the ucc in cork, the mri machine was put in by a private individual, the cancer care unit the same story, then it was decided to move cancer treatment to galway, until the same guy said no, ward 3b has no wash suite, he gave the cost of installing one, what is happening, it is now in the process od being shut down, talking about fissing of a benefactor, one of the few all ireland hurling medal winners we have, had a hearth problem lately, after being admitted to the regional, where was he treated, galway, barringtons was closed, st johns will be closed sooner rather than later, i started a thread some time ago about an indipendant limerick candidate, how long did it last, the people of limerick have to face up to reality, there is no point in having a medical card if you cannot be treated locally, no point in having a hospital that is allowed decline to nothing, my rant is not over yet.