THE VISION for success at Shannon over the next five years includes huge growth in passenger numbers; increased freight traffic and the creation of an international aviation services hub. The five-year plan put forward by the Shannon Airport Aviation Business Development Task Force is based around passenger growth to 2.5 million passengers within five years and the development of the International Aviation Services Center (IASC). The plan brought forward by the expert group under the chairmanship of Rose Hynes, is described as having been “robustly tested and validated by KPMG on behalf of the Department of Transport,” and promises the creation of up to 3,000 jobs within a three to five-year period.
These jobs will be provided across a cluster of diverse international, primarily aviation, related business centered on the airport and building on the existing cluster of 40 aviation related companies working at Shannon.
In the executive summary of the document, the Task Force predicts that within five years of this week’s separation from the Dublin Airport Authority the airport will be “a self-sustaining, cost-effective, international airport “.
The airport will win new business through a ‘flexible and efficient staff structure” and will steal a march on the Dublin Airport Authority by offering a “more convenient, efficient and enjoyable experience,” the report states.
Creating a strategic transit hub at the airport is also vital to its success, the expert group maintains.
Shannon will build on the strength of its geographical location; the availability of customs preclearance for the USA and aviation laws that allow an airline from one country to fly passengers between two other countries.
Russian carrier, Transaero has already expressed interest in carrying passengers from Moscow through Shannon to the US.
The five-year task for the building of an International Aviation Services Centre (IASC) will draw on the fact that there will be a merger between Shannon Development and the airport to form a new entity, which will make available the properties, many of them vacant, that are owned by Shannon Development in the Free Zone.
There is also the possibility of the airport boundary being expanded into the Free Zone.
With the aviation industry turning back into a growth phase, the report also foresees opportunities for the new company to get a slice of the action from the 22,000 commercial aircraft already in service and the 1,350 new craft delivered each year.
This puts a €50 billion price tag on the aircraft maintenance business worldwide by 2014, an industry which offers huge growth opportunity for Shannon if it is able to offer a competitive service on price and expertise.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan gave the airport a “getting started” gift in the form of financing in the budget to build hangers and carry out related works.
Clare County Council has done its bit in the Shannon area plan by zoning 2,000 acres for aviation, leaving the door open for expansion if there is an influx of new aviation related business.
And a new range of recommendations for Shannon are included in a major new air freight study for the country.
The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) All-Island Airfreight Study puts considerable focus on Shannon, recommending that US Customs and FDA pre-clearance facilities for both Irish and European originating freight should be sought for Shannon.
To get clearance would a “game changer,” according to the Task Force chairperson, Rose Hynes. “it would open up considerable opportunities for the airport and it is something we intend to pursue”.
“We are very much encouraged by this All-Island report as it clearly identifies the potential there is to develop Shannon as an air freight centre. We identified cargo as one of a number of significant opportunities for non-passenger growth at Shannon in the Task Force report and this new report very much endorses what we had outlined”.
The report also recommends exploring funding sources to enable Shannon develop a state-of-the-art cargo terminal, including cold chain facilities and identifies the opportunity for Shannon to be positioned as a European hub for US-bound Life Sciences cargo.
The recommendations also include leveraging existing tax provisions to attract European Life Science companies to base manufacturing and logistics centres in the region and developing new incentives to persuade express integrators to develop a specialist sectoral hub at the airport.
