Shannon Airport Thread [Mod Warning in First Post]

Clareman

This thread is to discuss all things Shannon Airport related.

Warning, any back biting, regional nonsense, trolling, baiting or back seat modding will lead to bans.

It's also important to remember than that this thread is in a regional forum, not the Aviation forum, if you want to get into details on Aviation, go to that forum. Finally, this is the Clare forum, there will be a bias towards Clare in here, so expect folk to want to defend their county .

ctlsleh

when are we going to get an early morning SNN-LHR flight back, this 8:45 flight is a disaster, you cant make it to London before 11:00 now if youre lucky. im a regular commuter and it is becoming a nightmare for work, we need our old early morning slots back.....!

GCU Flexible Demeanour

I can't seem to find the old thread. Has it been moved to another forum?

Mr. G

GCU Flexible Demeanour wrote: »

I can't seem to find the old thread. Has it been moved to another forum?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056563494&page=50

Clareman

ctlsleh wrote: »

when are we going to get an early morning SNN-LHR flight back, this 8:45 flight is a disaster, you cant make it to London before 11:00 now if youre lucky. im a regular commuter and it is becoming a nightmare for work, we need our old early morning slots back.....!

I used to work in London 2 days a week with the old fights, it was easier to be in the centre of London before 9 than it was to be in Dublin before 9, they really messed up the whole commute when they moved those slots around, i guess other routes are still more profitable for that early morning flight though.

Jhcx

One thing I never understood probably no one understood why they got rid of the LHR route. It must be having a set back on them. Obviously it's a problem for Shannon now because not that many would choose to arrive late in London. Do Ryanair have a early morning flight to Gatwick?

ctlsleh

Clareman wrote: »

I used to work in London 2 days a week with the old fights, it was easier to be in the centre of London before 9 than it was to be in Dublin before 9, they really messed up the whole commute when they moved those slots around, i guess other routes are still more profitable for that early morning flight though.

I travel almost every week and am now forced to drive to Dublin as are many others that i also know that used to use the route all the time. this will have a significnat impact on the Mid-West business community. personally im writing a letter to Mr Mueller (as advised by the styaff at SNN). ill happy PM it to you or anyone so that you can use as a baseline to edit if that helps. i do believe that we need to lobby our politicians and AerLingus directly, as this has an economic impact to the region not to mention the extreme inconvenience to all of us regular commuters. The reality is that our LHR slots were given to Belfast where there is a lot of competition on the route. And thats the crux of our problem.......there is no competition, the result being high prices and a reduced service, they have even put a A319 on now instead of the A320 and leg room is terrible by comparison..........a lobby group would be great if anyone has had any previous experience of how that works.....!

relaxed

The Ryanair flight departs at 06.30, its timetabled 1hr30 but is often quicker, so central London by 9AMish should be still possible ex. SNN?

My guess is the Aer Lingus flight is now targeted at connectivity, so to be in Germany for example for 9AM Tuesday, you leave SNN at 08.50 Monday, arrive in LHR at 10.20, allow approx. 3 hours transfer window so depart LHR around 1.30, arrive in Germany in the afternoon then get to your accomodation

Even if its an hour earlier there won't be many places in mainland Europe that you can get to before close of business same day as there is also the time difference to consider.

For international flights to middle east and asia then the 08.50 flight time is probably as good as the next.

ctlsleh

relaxed wrote: »

The Ryanair flight departs at 06.30, its timetabled 1hr30 but is often quicker, so central London by 9AMish should be still possible ex. SNN?

My guess is the Aer Lingus flight is now targeted at connectivity, so to be in Germany for example for 9AM Tuesday, you leave SNN at 08.50 Monday, arrive in LHR at 10.20, allow approx. 3 hours transfer window so depart LHR around 1.30, arrive in Germany in the afternoon then get to your accomodation

Even if its an hour earlier there won't be many places in mainland Europe that you can get to before close of business same day as there is also the time difference to consider.

For international flights to middle east and asia then the 08.50 flight time is probably as good as the next.

Well firstly the RyanAir flight is to Stanstead and i takes at least 1.5 hours to make it across london, its possible but its a nightmare journey, ive don it, its easier to drive to Dublin.....!

Secondly i travel to Europe all the time, the 7:20 from SNN arrived at 8:30 latest, it was always on time, sometimes early, compared to the current 8:50 departure time that arrives into London airspace at rush hour and can be circling for another 30mins sometimes only getting on the ground at 11AM. Compared to the original schedule, you arrived into LHR at 08:30 you could be on a flight to central europe by 10AM, arriving around 13:00 local time with still a half day of work and meetings ahead of you. thats almost as good as a direct frlight from Dublinor London to central europe and more than acceptable to any customer/partner/ employer and yourself in terms of time efficency......additionally you could go to London for a day, get a days work done and get back that evening. Cant do that anymore.......

So

Brennans Row

Publication of spring/summer government legislation programme 2014 (Government)

State Airports (Shannon Group) Bill – This Bill establishes a new State-owned commercial entity (Shannon Group plc) incorporating Shannon Airport Authority and Shannon Development and provides for the adoption by Ireland of the Cape Town insolvency regime in respect of aircraft assets.

So this legislation will now be dealt with . . .

• at the earliest in the beginning of spring or
• at the latest the end of the summer.

See previous post.

GCU Flexible Demeanour

Brennans Row wrote: »

See previous post.

I would, but that's in the naughty thread.

Brennans Row

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shannon Aerospace workers reject Labour Court recommendation over pension scheme (RTE)[/FONT]

Workers at aviation maintenance company Shannon Aerospace have overwhelmingly rejected a Labour Court recommendation aimed at resolving a dispute over the management's plans to close the defined benefit pension scheme.

The company had announced to staff that it would cease making contributions to the pension scheme, which is solvent, from 3 February.

Shannon Aerospace management had accepted the recommendation. However, it has emerged this evening that 92% of staff voted to reject the recommendation.

The turnout was around 88%.

A spokesperson for Shannon Aerospace said the board would be considering the ballot result over the weekend.

She said it is still very open to negotiations and want to talk to the unions.

The Labour Court recommended that both sides should maintain the status quo for two months to allow for negotiations.

Its interesting to note that Lufthansa (Shannon Aerospace's owner) has a €4.7 Billion pension deficit liability for its 117.000 workforce.

Which works out about 2/3 of its total market value (September 2013). :eek:

A ticking time bomb one german newspaper called it.

On top of that, budget airlines like Ryanair have eaten into their market share of the European routes big time.

Also their lucrative long haul routes is under great pressure from state funded airlines like Emirates, Turkish Airlines.

They are in the process of replacing Lufthansa airline with their own budget airline germanwings for their short haul routes.

Lufthansa has introduced an efficiency programme “Score” to every division of its concern and is radically cutting costs and jobs right across the board.

I hope Shannon Aerospace and Lufthansa Technik Turbine Shannon did well in that efficiency programme “Score” because they would play an important role in Shannon Airport's plan for an International Aviation Services Centre.

There is never a dull Moment at Shannon.

Brennans Row

ITLG Young Innovators Conference at Shannon Airport :cool:

A big turnout yesterday, 700 secondary students in all took part.

The country could certainly do with a few more smart kids like the Collision brothers.

Brennans Row

RYANAIR has announced a new route from Shannon to Poitiers in France, which will operate twice weekly from the start of April.

The low cost airline, which previously announced eight new routes from the airport in October last year, said it was “celebrating” the announcement of the new Shannon route by releasing 100,000 seats on sale at prices from just €17.99 for travel in February and March, which are available for booking until midnight this Thursday.

See Limerick Leader

imurdaddy

Brennans Row wrote: »

RYANAIR has announced a new route from Shannon to Poitiers in France, which will operate twice weekly from the start of April.

The low cost airline, which previously announced eight new routes from the airport in October last year, said it was “celebrating” the announcement of the new Shannon route by releasing 100,000 seats on sale at prices from just €17.99 for travel in February and March, which are available for booking until midnight this Thursday.

See Limerick Leader

More great news! Shaping up to be a good year for SNN!

highlydebased

What they didn't quite say is that that new route replaces Shannon-Nantes

Brennans Row

highlydebased wrote: »

What they didn't quite say is that that new route replaces Shannon-Nantes

You are right, it looks like a switch!

Shannon Airport is still showing Ryanair as one of two operators for Nantes.

Midnight Shadow

Brennans Row wrote: »

ITLG Young Innovators Conference at Shannon Airport :cool:

A big turnout yesterday, 700 secondary students in all took part.

The country could certainly do with a few more smart kids like the Collision brothers.

I was involved in yesterdays event as a mentor to students ...the students really got engaged in the day....great day! It gives great hope in future with students like these people coming through. Also..the departure's area was a great space for this event...

Awwwwfook

highlydebased wrote: »

What they didn't quite say is that that new route replaces Shannon-Nantes

FFS, we only booked flights to Nantes on Sunday

Jamie2k9

ctlsleh wrote: »

I travel almost every week and am now forced to drive to Dublin as are many others that i also know that used to use the route all the time. this will have a significnat impact on the Mid-West business community. personally im writing a letter to Mr Mueller (as advised by the styaff at SNN). ill happy PM it to you or anyone so that you can use as a baseline to edit if that helps. i do believe that we need to lobby our politicians and AerLingus directly, as this has an economic impact to the region not to mention the extreme inconvenience to all of us regular commuters. The reality is that our LHR slots were given to Belfast where there is a lot of competition on the route. And thats the crux of our problem.......there is no competition, the result being high prices and a reduced service, they have even put a A319 on now instead of the A320 and leg room is terrible by comparison..........a lobby group would be great if anyone has had any previous experience of how that works.....!

Lobbying politions is useless and Aer Lingus make decisions based on commerical reaossns and not because of TD's or to please passengers. It's about profit. Once EI is sold off politions will have zero say although they have next to no infulance now. EI could easily close the route in a few years and there is nothing anybody could do about it. The capacity reduciton is because demad elasewhere is higher for the 320.

It's not as if ther is no early flights into London from Shannon.

What noncense the impact on the region, just about every little chagne that isn't in SNN favour has an "impact" on the region, utter tripe and noncese. There is no impact you are not being foreced to fly to Dublin, you just don't want to drive in London.

Provide the facts about the "impact" and don't confuse it with the "convieance" of yourself not having to travel to Dublin. If business is based a special flight time then I don't hold much hope for its success in the future.

relaxed

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Lobbying politions is useless and Aer Lingus make decisions based on commerical reaossns and not because of TD's or to please passengers. It's about profit. Once EI is sold off politions will have zero say although they have next to no infulance now. EI could easily close the route in a few years and there is nothing anybody could do about it. The capacity reduciton is because demad elasewhere is higher for the 320.

It's not as if ther is no early flights into London from Shannon.

What noncense the impact on the region, just about every little chagne that isn't in SNN favour has an "impact" on the region, utter tripe and noncese. There is no impact you are not being foreced to fly to Dublin, you just don't want to drive in London.

Provide the facts about the "impact" and don't confuse it with the "convieance" of yourself not having to travel to Dublin. If business is based a special flight time then I don't hold much hope for its success in the future.

The Ryanair flight leaves 50 minutes earlier than the old Aer Lingus flight, and Stansted express takes about 30 minutes longer than the Heathrow express, so you can still be in London around the same time as Aer Lingus would have gotten you there.

If you are in Stansted by 8am with Ryanair there are plenty of European cities served if you want to connect to Europe to be at work somewhere in the afternoon.

flipper2009

How disappointing that the Shannon-Nantes route is gone. It used to be pretty full I thought.

And I have already booked my flights at Easter

Brennans Row

flipper2009 wrote: »

How disappointing that the Shannon-Nantes route is gone. It used to be pretty full I thought.

And I have already booked my flights at Easter

If its any consolation to you, Poitiers Airport is 220 Km south of Nantes Airport.

Alternatively a Shannon-Nantes charter service operates in the summer season too.

Brennans Row

US connections to West and South significantly enhanced as daily, year-round Boston-Shannon service launched (Shannon Airport)

Today’s Boston flight was another first at Shannon as it marked Aer Lingus’ inaugural commercial transatlantic flight with the Boeing B757 aircraft. The airline will base two 757s at Shannon, replacing a single Airbus A330. The increased frequency also significantly enhances Shannon connectivity to almost 40 cities in North America through Aer Lingus’ partner airline, Jetblue Airways, allowing passengers to connect seamlessly to cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Seattle, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Fort Lauderdale, Phoenix, Washington, Orlando and Dallas.

Image by Brian Buckley.

flipper2009

Brennans Row wrote: »

If its any consolation to you, Poitiers Airport is 220 Km south of Nantes Airport.

It's not much consolation to me. Poitiers is a small town with no airport transport to the train station and no inter city buses. Some of the trains between Nantes and Poitiers pass through Paris and cost €120 one way.

Speaking to some french people who regularly use this flight - they wouldn't dream of using Shannon Poitiers as it's inaccessible to most cities.

Strange decision for Ryanair to make to switch Nantes with Poitiers

Jamie2k9

If its any consolation to you, Poitiers Airport is 220 Km south of Nantes Airport.

Dublin is only 222km east of Shannon so there would be no savings at either end.

Strange decision for Ryanair to make to switch Nantes with Poitiers

So sort of subsidy from France is either up or being offered from Poitiers. Any route move will be of benefit to FR over the consumer ever if Nantes was actually making money.

Brennans Row

Brennans Row wrote: »

@flipper2009: If its any consolation to you, Poitiers Airport is 220 Km south of Nantes Airport.

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Dublin is only 222km east of Shannon so there would be no savings at either end.

Without knowing flipper2009’s final destination in France or his residence in Ireland, how can you then say with such certainty that there would be no savings at either end?

Brennans Row

Clareman wrote: »

I used to work in London 2 days a week with the old fights, it was easier to be in the centre of London before 9 than it was to be in Dublin before 9, they really messed up the whole commute when they moved those slots around, i guess other routes are still more profitable for that early morning flight though.

ctlsleh wrote: »

I travel almost every week and am now forced to drive to Dublin as are many others that i also know that used to use the route all the time. this will have a significnat impact on the Mid-West business community. personally im writing a letter to Mr Mueller (as advised by the styaff at SNN). ill happy PM it to you or anyone so that you can use as a baseline to edit if that helps. i do believe that we need to lobby our politicians and AerLingus directly, as this has an economic impact to the region not to mention the extreme inconvenience to all of us regular commuters.

My brother use to give single day lectures in London some years back.

The present 08:50 departure time to Heathrow would have made those day lectures unworkable for him, unless of course he travelled the night before along with the additional hotel costs.

Driving to Dublin would have added another 4-5 hours to his working day.

Did you hear anything from the good people at Aer Lingus?

Anybody who works for a living and needs an earlier flight to Heathrow should lobby the Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway Chambers of Commerce.

flipper2009

Brennans Row wrote: »

Without knowing flipper2009’s final destination in France or his residence in Ireland, how can you then say with such certainty that there would be no savings at either end?

Flipper will be getting the bus to Dublin to take Ryanair or Flybe to Nantes on a regular basis and will be paying a €15 bus fare instead of a €100 train fare from Poitiers :P

Brennans Row

Makes sense if Nantes itself, is your final destination.

Awwwwfook

flipper2009 wrote: »

Flipper will be getting the bus to Dublin to take Ryanair or Flybe to Nantes on a regular basis and will be paying a €15 bus fare instead of a €100 train fare from Poitiers :P

Got notification today that the flights I changed from shannon to nantes to go dublin to nantes have now been cancelled. Is there another airline that flys into nantes?

Brennans Row

Shannon Airport Authority seeks joint venture partner for travel retail business (The Moodie Report)

Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) is seeking a joint venture partner to manage its travel retail business under a ten-year contract.

The company is issuing the opportunity today via The Moodie Report, with a formal advertisement to appear online and in this week’s edition of The Moodie Report e-Zine (out on Thursday).

“SAA’s ambition, working with its new JV partner, is to use the JV’s skills and resources to bid for travel retail opportunities in other international airports and potentially provide consultancy services to developing airports.”

The new travel retail store will operate under the name Shannon Duty Free.

Absolutely amazing, SAA are throwing down the gauntlet at the DAA after they plundered ARI. :cool:

Here some previous posts regarding the Aer Rianta International (SAA / DAA) ownership saga (174, 314, 488).

Jamie2k9

Absolutely amazing, SAA are throwing down the gauntlet at the DAA after they plundered ARI.

I'm sure the DAA and ARI are quaking in their boots over these developments. :rolleyes: They are to busy getting ready to redevelop terminal 1.

Brennans Row

Jaysus Jamie2k9, it was not meant to be an infantile jibe at Dublin.

Nevertheless, it gives me great satisfaction to see Shannon pursue again the very same business it once innovated in the form of ARI back in 1988.

The difference this time round is that any profits made will remain in the Shannon Group.

The DAA did very well from Shannon's (ARI) which helped them finance their Terminal 2.

Now with all of ARI's profit reserves gone, it would be very bitter in my eyes if the DAA started to sell off their assets like (20% stake in Düsseldorf Airport) to fund a redevelopment of Terminal 1.

Killing the goose (ARI) that laid the golden eggs would lay bare to everybody in Ireland that the DAA never identified with the Shannon based company, apart from its balance sheet of course.

Jamie2k9

Jaysus Jamie2k9, it was not meant to be an infantile jibe at Dublin.

It's coming across like it is, SNN has to take some responsibility as the remember FR wanted the daa to pay them to fly there not any commercial business wouldn't give into the blackmail. The problem was FR drove the few carriers in SNN before them away and created a monopoly and that was not the fault of the daa but the people who didn't support other carriers.

Nevertheless, it gives me great satisfaction to see Shannon pursue again the very same business it once innovated in the form of ARI back in 1988.

The difference this time round is that any profits made will remain in the Shannon Group.

The DAA did very well from Shannon's (ARI) which helped them finance their Terminal 2.

Now with all of ARI's profit reserves gone, it would be very bitter in my eyes if the DAA started to sell off their assets like (20% stake in Düsseldorf Airport) to fund a redevelopment of Terminal 1.

Killing the goose (ARI) that laid the golden eggs would lay bare to everybody in Ireland that the DAA never identified with the Shannon based company, apart from its balance sheet of course

I agree about SNN growing again but just hope all egg's won't be put in one basket over the next few years.

Just a little comment on the ARI before the Mod's starting posting.

ARI may of financed it but lets be honest here they didn't pay for it. Nothing will be sold off, remember DUB is making operational profits so ARI have nothing to worry about.

relaxed

Brennans Row wrote: »

My brother use to give single day lectures in London some years back.

The present 08:50 departure time to Heathrow would have made those day lectures unworkable for him, unless of course he travelled the night before along with the additional hotel costs.

Driving to Dublin would have added another 4-5 hours to his working day.

Did you hear anything from the good people at Aer Lingus?

Anybody who works for a living and needs an earlier flight to Heathrow should lobby the Limerick, Shannon, Ennis and Galway Chambers of Commerce.

There is still the 6.30am Ryanair flight with departs 50 minutes earlier, it takes a bit longer on the Stansted express but should still get you into London around the same.

GCU Flexible Demeanour

Brennans Row wrote: »

Killing the goose (ARI) that laid the golden eggs would lay bare to everybody in Ireland that the DAA never identified with the Shannon based company, apart from its balance sheet of course.

I don't think this catches the reality that ARI's growth was (as the name suggests) as part of the Aer Rianta group; the financial strength came from the fact of it being a part of a strong business. It didn't acquire all those assets organically. It's somewhat similar to the history of GPA, growing out of Aer Lingus.

However, going back to the main story, it certainly is interesting to see SAA taking this initiative. I'd take it there could be locally based ARI staff would would be interested in getting involved in a new venture. I think the focus on providing services to international markets is welcome. If ARI and this new Shannon venture are both looking for business abroad, the country as a whole certainly won't lose and can only gain.

Brennans Row

Trump International Golf Links Ireland (Irish Times)

“We’re bringing the Trump factor to Ireland” Donald Trump snr said last night, announcing his firm’s “major investment” in the golf resort at Doonbeg, Co Clare.

Like the guy or loathe the guy, with Donal Trumps high profile in the U.S. this should attract even more travelling golfers to Ireland, resulting in more American passengers and corporate jet traffic for Shannon too.

Brennans Row

Emergency funding on table as local councils face €70m storm bill (Independent)

LOCAL authorities are facing a bill in excess of €70m to repair damage caused by the past six weeks of floods and storms.

Clare County Council is likely to have the biggest bill, with engineers yesterday estimating the damage at €37m – revised upwards from an original figure of €24m.

The council warns that more extensive coastal defences are needed in some areas.

It also says that thousands of acres of farmland are under threat in the Shannon Estuary, and that some €1.3m is needed to protect Shannon Airport and the town from inundation.

This link here from an image taken in 1977 gives one a fair idea of the height of the flood defences at the airport.

Today they are hidden away by trees along the main road leading up to the terminal.

Below is an image of their construction in the 1930s.

They seem to have served the airport well, as I cannot ever recall flooding issues there?

Brennans Row

Shannon Group announces plans to develop new hangar after reaching capacity on existing space (Shannon Airport)

This follows the signing of a contract for an eight year lease by Air Contractors, a member of the ASL Aviation group, with the Shannon Group for the remaining hangar space at the airport. This will be used by Air Contractors for line maintenance on its fleet of Boeing and ATR aircraft, including its Boeing 757 aircrafts which will be flown by Aer Lingus on the new daily Shannon-Boston service launched last week and its six times weekly JFK New York service that commences in March.

The airport currently has 50,700sq meters of space in nine hangars, all of which will be fully occupied following the signing of contracts with Air Contractors. To meet a current request for near term additional hangar space, the board of the Shannon Group recently agreed to seek planning permission and to tender for the procurement and associated works of a fabric hangar of 4,300sq metres capable of accommodating wide-bodied aircraft.

Commenting following the signing of the contract for use of the vacant hangar, Air Contractors Director of Enginering Brendan Smyth said: “The hangar is an excellent facility that will support our new Boeing 757 services for Aer Lingus, and also our Boeing 737 and ATR services from Shannon for our customers including DHL and FedEx.

“We have had a permanent presence in Shannon since 2004 and this move to our new hangar coupled with the trans-Atlantic operation for Aer Lingus strengthens our ties with the airport considerably”, Mr. Smyth continued. “We have grown our presence and now have about 50 engineering and flight deck positions and we are also delighted to support other maintenance and engineering facilities in the airport.

“The East Apron Hangar will play a key role in the future success of the B757 operations from Shannon as well as our summer charter passenger operations and our freight flying which is very important to business in the region.”



So it looks like that Air Contractors (ASL) will service the Boeing aircraft for Aer Lingus in their former MRO hangar.

Maybe Clinton can confirm this?

relaxed

Brennans Row wrote: »

This link here from an image taken in 1977 gives one a fair idea of the height of the flood defences at the airport.

Today they are hidden away by trees along the main road leading up to the terminal.

Below is an image of their construction in the 1930s.

They seem to have served the airport well, as I cannot ever recall flooding issues there?

Similar defences protect a lot of areas all the way up and through Limerick city, which saw its first breach ever this winter in the island field area.

The problem I see is these defences will need to be built higher and higher, and the same amount of water will always enter the estuary in a big storm and need to go somewhere.

If they add 2' in Limerick then Shannon becomes a low point, so they raise the banks in Shannon then it could be Bunratty, so eventually the water would push up further through Limerick, Clarecastle and Bunratty etc., flooding places like Sixmilebridge, up stream of Ennis, Adare, and out near UL etc.

Jamie2k9

SNN 2013 traffic figures included the Santa flights, domestic traffic added around 9,000 passengers whish are from Decembers flights. Clearly management trying to smokescreen the real facts.

relaxed

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

SNN 2013 traffic figures included the Santa flights, domestic traffic added around 9,000 passengers whish are from Decembers flights. Clearly management trying to smokescreen the real facts.

Indeed, if you take out the 9000 flights the numbers would be massively lower.:rolleyes:

Some clown was on here before with this waffle about the santa flights only being run to make the numbers look better, you are not even the first to try it.

Its getting boring now, old news. Everybody else has moved on.

Kess73

relaxed wrote: »

Indeed, if you take out the 9000 flights the numbers would be massively lower.:rolleyes:

Some clown was on here before with this waffle about the santa flights only being run to make the numbers look better, you are not even the first to try it.

Its getting boring now, old news. Everybody else has moved on.

Mod Post: Attack the post and not the poster. Seeing as you have not named a poster with your clown comment, you are avoiding a card, but I will be taking a look back through the old thread to see which posters were involved in the conversation you mentioned and I will expect no personal attacks or derogatory references towards them going forward.

Same thing goes for everyone else that uses this thread. Debate a point, argue your point, be passionate about it if it means something to you, but do not let this thread slip into a series of back and forth backbiting and sniping.

Cosmo Kramer

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

SNN 2013 traffic figures included the Santa flights, domestic traffic added around 9,000 passengers whish are from Decembers flights. Clearly management trying to smokescreen the real facts.

Well, now we know. 9,000 'passengers' who flew nowhere other than in and out of Shannon Airport free of charge at the airport's expense had to be counted twice to artificailly manipulate the annual passenger statistics to make it appear as though more passengers used the airport in year one under the new management than under the DAA the year previously. In fact we now know that 2013 was, in fact, the seventh successive year of passenger decline at Shannon Airport.

These flights were an incredible waste of public money given the extent of the bailout provided to Shannon just one year ago - make no mistake, the Irish taxpayer paid for this through the airport bailout. I know that the Shannon propaganda machine on here will do all they can to sweep this under the carpet but there should be no denying that this would be an incredibly embarrasing news story for the airport were it to be picked up by the wider media. That Leo Varadkar lauded the 2013 passenger 'increase' through social media also raises real concerns over his ability to manage and understand the workings of his government department.

imurdaddy

"If we all know" where are the figures? All you are doing is speculating! Worthless.

Brennans Row

Here is the link to the traffic figures (note the increase in the domestic figures for 2013).

imurdaddy

Ok I see the jump in domestic allright, but lets say they are the santa flights, they did use the airport so its not wrong to include them! The point been ignored is the Ryanair and Shannon put on the flights as a joint venture Snn faclity & Ryanair aircraft. There is no smoking gun as to shannon paying Ryanair to cook the books! Its also been widely reported it was to launch the new routes to europe.

Snn is not the only airport to have santa flights this year as several in the uk had Ryanair santa flights! Pax numbers cooking there also? Doubt it.

The facts are no matter what shannon management do will be under a close eye, and to detractors of shannon a chance to get excited and ignore the facts.

Anyway this years numbers will be interesting, with lots of predicted growth and new routes, hopefully good times ahead for snn.

Brennans Row

Cosmo Kramer wrote: »

Well, now we know. 9,000 'passengers' who flew nowhere other than in and out of Shannon Airport free of charge at the airport's expense had to be counted twice to artificailly manipulate the annual passenger statistics to make it appear as though more passengers used the airport in year one under the new management than under the DAA the year previously. In fact we now know that 2013 was, in fact, the seventh successive year of passenger decline at Shannon Airport.

These flights were an incredible waste of public money given the extent of the bailout provided to Shannon just one year ago - make no mistake, the Irish taxpayer paid for this through the airport bailout. I know that the Shannon propaganda machine on here will do all they can to sweep this under the carpet but there should be no denying that this would be an incredibly embarrasing news story for the airport were it to be picked up by the wider media. That Leo Varadkar lauded the 2013 passenger 'increase' through social media also raises real concerns over his ability to manage and understand the workings of his government department.

I would appreciate it if you would stop labelling my opinions / posts here to be emanating from some sort of a “Shannon propaganda machine”.

You may be technically correct in that Shannon Airport would have had a marginal -00.29% decrease in passenger numbers instead of a marginal +00.38% increase were it not for the Santa-Kids promotion.

The overall numbers for 2012 and 2013 roughly hit the same 1.4 million mark which objectively means a stabilisation of the numbers has been achieved.

Shannon’s CEO Neil Pakey has a free hand to use his marketing budget as he sees fit for the overall good of the airport.

The positive PR received in the national press for the Santa-Kids promotion will pay dividends and baring another world banking crisis we will see a two digit growth in passenger numbers at Shannon this year.


Passengers per year.

• 2007 (3.6 million)
• 2008 (3.2 million)
• 2009 (2.8 million)
• 2010 (1.8 million)
• 2011 (1.6 million)
• 2012 (1.4 million)
• 2013 (1.4 million)

GCU Flexible Demeanour

imurdaddy wrote: »

Ok I see the jump in domestic allright, but lets say they are the santa flights, they did use the airport so its not wrong to include them!

Ah, come on. Flying 4,500 people around in a circle so you can say you'd 9.000 passengers is a joke. It actually undermines a reasonably good 2013 performance. Other airports might have had a few Santa flights. But they weren't material to their numbers.

As to who paid for the flights, we simply don't know. SNN and Ryanair acknowledge each other in the PR. That doesn't tell us whether the costs were shared, or whether one paid the other.

And we'll probably never know, as there isn't a journalist in the country with the will to follow up on an interesting little story. So, forever, we'll be told that SNN's passenger numbers increased the moment the daa left. But it won't actually be the true story.

relaxed

GCU Flexible Demeanour wrote: »

Ah, come on. Flying 4,500 people around in a circle so you can say you'd 9.000 passengers is a joke.

What makes you think that's the sole reason they did it? Whether there were santa flights or not the statistic that intelligent people see is that the new authority have stabilised the passenger numbers in year 1 and arrested an annual decline of over 200000 per year while the DAA were running the place into the ground for the last few years.

This years numbers will show whether there is sustained growth in passengers or not.

GCU Flexible Demeanour wrote: »

as there isn't a journalist in the country with the will to follow up on an interesting little story

You are correct in that, it is just a little story, that only seems to bother yourself and a few others. If you take away the 9000 flights the media would have reported it much the same, that the numbers have stabilised, being only a few thousand different to last year, and that the rot has been stopped.