Shannon Airport Thread [Mod Warning in First Post]

Heard an Aer Lingus add advertising Shannon Heathrow on UK radio this morning. Hadn't heard it before

Deagol wrote: »

https://www.copenhageneconomics.com/publications/publication/assessment-of-aviation-policy-as-a-driver-of-economic-development-in-the-west-and-mid-west-of-ireland

Getting state funding of €9.7m for costs associated with upgrading its hold baggage screening system would give the airport breathing space for it to finance the development of it's Frankfurt and US routes.

More business travellers will improve the business case for operating out of Shannon Airport, and the positive cycle will support sustainable growth in the region.

It would comply with EU Guidelines on State Aid to airports and airlines.

Damaged windshield forces jet to divert to Shannon (Clare Herald)

A transatlantic jet has been forced to divert to Shannon Airport last Monday night after a cockpit window was damaged in flight.

American Airlines flight AA-141 was travelling from London to New York at the time. There were 168 passengers and a crew of 13 on board.

The Boeing 777-200 jet was routing overhead Ireland when the crew informed air traffic controllers at Shannon that they wished to divert to the mid-west airport. The crew confirmed they had suffered “damage to the front windscreen.”

Balf

https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/Supporting-Shannon-Airport-cannot-be-at-the-detriment-of-Cork-Taoiseach-274d5bd7-0e48-4323-b20c-a71300e95260-ds

Mr Varadkar said that measures, such as waiving charges for airlines for up to five years to incentivise them to establish new routes can be taken but included a caveat.

“Ultimately, a new route only succeeds if there is sufficient demand. Many routes fail because there just is not sufficient demand and the Government cannot create demand where it does not exist. We also need to make sure that we do not use taxpayers’ money for displacement, subsidising a new route that is just a route move from Cork to Shannon or from Knock to Shannon. That does not make any sense.”

Mr Varadkar is encouraging local authorities in the mid-west to get behind Shannon Airport and promote it.

If he said "local authorities and Chambers of Commerce", it wouldn't be wrong.

JamesBond2010

Lads why did Aer lingus Cancel Edinburgh &Birmingham today ??

JamesBond2010 wrote: »

Lads why did Aer lingus Cancel Edinburgh &Birmingham today ??

Probably to windy for the ATRs to operate.

JamesBond2010

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Probably to windy for the ATRs to operate.

some fecking fool forgot about that

:D:D

Henry Ford III

Flew United to Newark and back recently.

Shannon is a joy to use. That is all.

mdmix

https://www.limerickleader.ie/news/home/484802/beleaguered-airport-could-get-a-boost-from-route-fund-in-budget-2020.html

Anyone have any idea of how this route development fund might work? I don’t really know what Shannon’s strategy is, I’m not sure the airport management do either. By the sounds of it they want to develop a connection to Frankfurt as a hub, which certainly would be helpful for passengers to have a second choice.. but Frankfurt is not Paris, London, Berlin or Amsterdam, so it won’t have the same pull for city breaks.

If Lufthansa are getting a special deal might this not result in reduced service to heathrow with aer lingus?

Agree completely on this. If you were going to throw money at a route I'd have said Turkish Airlines, etihad or Emirates are the ones I'd talk to. A single route to Asian and australasian Market would at least be worth subsidising and wouldn't be in direct competition with the current routes.

Tiernster7 wrote: »

Agree completely on this. If you were going to throw money at a route I'd have said Turkish Airlines, etihad or Emirates are the ones I'd talk to. A single route to Asian and australasian Market would at least be worth subsidising and wouldn't be in direct competition with the current routes.

You're very unlikely to fill any such route from Shannon. They're more than catered for daily in Dublin where they use 777 sized planes. Shannon needs more regular UK and European routes, not once a week flights to Asia.

Thomas Cook Airlines

After the collapse of Thomas Cook Airlines a number of the airlines A321s are now stored in Shannon.

There are a total of 10 Thomas Cook aircraft now stored in Shannon.

Source (Flickr - Ken Meegan)

I presume the MRO und the Paint Hangars will get work here from the local lessors.

Holiday jet diverts to Shannon with ill passenger (Clare Herald)

Thomson flight BY-1448 was less than an hour into its journey from Glasgow, Scotland to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands when the crew turned around.

The flight was about 50 kilometres southwest of Cork at around 4.15pm when the crew advised air traffic controllers that they had a ‘medical situation’ on board and wished to divert to Shannon Airport.

mdmix wrote: »

By the sounds of it they want to develop a connection to Frankfurt as a hub, which certainly would be helpful for passengers to have a second choice.. but Frankfurt is not Paris, London, Berlin or Amsterdam, so it won’t have the same pull for city breaks.

There is also a great public transport system operating from Frankfurt Airport to other regions in Germany.

The 300 km fast ICE train travels non-stop from Frankfurt Airport to metropoles like Cologne and Stuttgart in less than hour for return fares of €50.

An additional Monday flight to the Thursday and Saturday slots would make it more interesting for business travelers.

As it stands it seems to be mainly catering for the german tourist.

Cookiemunster wrote: »

You're very unlikely to fill any such route from Shannon. They're more than catered for daily in Dublin where they use 777 sized planes. Shannon needs more regular UK and European routes, not once a week flights to Asia.

While I agree on the European and UK point the reality is they are competing with Knock, Kerry and Cork for these. The longer distance flights they are just competing with Dublin and so there is a much bigger catchment area to fill these flights.

I work in IT in Midwest and can say in quite a few of the big employers a decent percentage of the workforce are Asian and more specifically Indian. The variant of routes to India is much greater from Dubai, then Heathrow as well as the frequency. In addition to this UL, UCC and NUIG all have large numbers of overseas students from Asia.

Next you have Irish ex pats in both the middle east and Australia and New Zealand. Again you are only competing with Dublin so have a much bigger catchment to pick from. I honestly believe people as far east as Laois, south as Cork and North as Sligo would pick Shannon for this type of route. I also believe the weightings of these people in terms of Dublin v non Dublin is heavily weighted towards non Dublin.

The most recent figures show non American and non European is the only area where numbers actually grew. The base is obviously small but if its growing that's good.
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/ot/overseastravelaugust2019/

Data of Irish people's destinations harder to find but outside of Europe the fastest growing.

For me the way Shannon can compete best is long haul and this is probably the main missing piece.

Having been on the Heathrow route a few times recently I believe its performing well but that the percentage of traffic using this to get to asia/australasia is relatively low possibly due to cost reasons. If you have a second hub, you will pick up some of the cost conscious passengers using Ireland rather than Dublin as their filter on sky scanner.

Shannon wouldn't be completing with Knock. Kerry or Cork for Mid West traffic to the UK or Europe. It has over 250,000 people living within 40-45 minutes of the airport who can reach Shannon much more easily than those other airports.

None of the ME airlines are going to send a 777 size plane into Shannon. It won't be filled. Most of the TA flights are on 757s for a reason. And there are far more people wanting to travel to the US than the ME. The ME is more than catered for from DUB and Dublin is pretty easy to get to for most of those you think would use Shannon. It's not going to happen.

And Shannon is not and never will be a hub.

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Shannon wouldn't be completing with Knock. Kerry or Cork for Mid West traffic to the UK or Europe. It has over 250,000 people living within 40-45 minutes of the airport who can reach Shannon much more easily than those other airports.

None of the ME airlines are going to send a 777 size plane into Shannon. It won't be filled. Most of the TA flights are on 757s for a reason. And there are far more people wanting to travel to the US than the ME. The ME is more than catered for from DUB and Dublin is pretty easy to get to for most of those you think would use Shannon. It's not going to happen.

And Shannon is not and never will be a hub.

The point is there isn't enough traffic in Midwest region to expand Europe and UK routesso you need to find an alternative way to make the airport work (in my opinion it isn't)
The main asset it has over the other western airports is runway size, the main asset it has over Dublin is queue times and relative stress.

I'd agree its unlikely to happen although Emirates or etihad have said its not impossible in recent past

golfball37

Europe is where they need to concentrate on. Amsterdam or Paris should be a priority.

Tiernster7 wrote: »

The point is there isn't enough traffic in Midwest region to expand Europe and UK routesso you need to find an alternative way to make the airport work (in my opinion it isn't)
The main asset it has over the other western airports is runway size, the main asset it has over Dublin is queue times and relative stress.

I'd agree its unlikely to happen although Emirates or etihad have said its not impossible in recent past

There is enough traffic as was proved in the past when 2.5m went through the airport. What is needed are routes to destination/hubs that people actually want to use on days that will get people to use them, like we used to have in the 00s. We're back to full employment and people have money to ttravel. Tue/Thu flights are no good to anyone outside the bucket and spade routes and are sending potential passengers to Dub for weekends away.

Malta , Newcastle , Bologna, Riga among the monster airports with a link to either Abu Dhabi or Dubai. This is what I would target

I do agree that the lack of a route to Northern Europe is hurting the airport alot. I can actually see alot of merit in Frankfurt if this is the best they can get. 3hrs on a train probably gets you quite a few places from there.