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Potential for Middle East Airlines in Shannon?

  • 14-01-2014 6:34am
    #1
    poteen
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 503 ✭✭✭


    This thought crossed my mind last night. What is the potential for Emirates / Etihad / Qatar / Gulf etc etc to set up routes from Shannon to their Middle East Hubs?

    I would have thought there was a market for maybe 3 flights a week for one of these carriers. If you look at the expansion of Emirates to 14 flights a week from Dublin, Etihads frequent service and the recent talk of Qatar joining in you would think yes. The transatlantic Shannon routes are holding their own. Also with all the Cargo these Middle East airlines are moving from Dublin, surely there is enough of an export market in the region between Galway, Limerick and Cork to make it viable.


Comments

  • #2
    IRLConor
    Subscribers Posts: 4,076 ✭✭✭IRLConor


    I'm sure if they can make money on a route to Shannon without changing the profitability of their Dublin routes they'll think about it. If they thought they'd be moving any significant amount of traffic out of Dublin I suspect they wouldn't. There's a chunk of non-recoverable expenditure that they'd have to put into opening a new route compared to simply increasing capacity/frequency on a current one. (Stuff like handling, maintenance and lounges.) Then there's the problem that there's no significant population centre nearby which limits the amount of easily-won, organic traffic they can get in and out of there.

    I don't work in the industry, so maybe there's some subtlety I'm missing somewhere but looking at the routes that Etihad and Emirates fly right now I can't spot a destination that would be comparable to Shannon.


  • #3
    highlydebased
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,476 ✭✭✭highlydebased


    The only one that could even be remotely possible is Turkish to Istanbul- good connections onward from there. Service from Emirates etc would certainly dilute loads etc on their Dublin service

    IMO SNN should concentrate on trying to get a connection to another european hub, Frankfurt or amsterdam


  • #4
    relaxed
    Closed Accounts Posts: 572 ✭✭✭relaxed


    Unless there is a potential for inbound tourism traffic from the middle east to the west of Ireland I am not sure where the passengers will come from.

    Galway and Limerick, Shannons potential major population centres, are not that far up the motorway from Dublin anymore so for a long haul journey to China or Australia the extra bit to Dublin is adding very little to the multi day expedition time.


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