SHANNON is “on the way back in a big way”, according a leading travel agent who predicts that the airport will see an additional 300,000 passengers by the end of the year largely due to the addition of the new routes by the major carriers.
Tony Brasil of Limerick Travel told a meeting of the region’s tour operators and travel executives that Shannon is showing that it can succeed without the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) governing how business is done.
And with the joint announcement by the airport and the Spanish Tourist Board of a big increase in flight capacity to Spain, passenger numbers are set for double digit growth.
“Well over 50 per cent of tourists choose Spain as a destination and with the increase in capacity, we are looking forward to a bumper year”, Mr Brasil declared.
“Shannon Airport is not only good for tourism but it is also good for industry and the reason we have such good clusters of overseas investors here is because Shannon is providing links to the outside world. We punch way above our strengths compared with other cities around Europe.”
“Shannon has three daily flights in Summer to New York whereas many other large cities in France or even Germany might only just have one”, he explained.
Shannon Airport Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Murphy said that with the new routes, it was vital that passengers were encouraged to use them – even down to discounted car parking.
Emphasising the importance of enhanced tourism products such as the Wild Atlantic Way, he said that with six flights landing each morning from Chicago, Philadelphia and a couple from New York and Boston, it was a hugely important element in building passenger numbers.
“The new airport authority will be working very hard to support the local economy by trying to attract visitors to use Shannon but the early indicators from both the US and Europe suggest that visitor numbers are going to be very strong over the next number of years and that is a good shot in the arm for the West of Ireland.”
Stating that the Shannon Group had set very public benchmark of increasing passenger numbers to two million over the next three to five years, Mr Murphy added that it was just as important that they succeeded in building an international profile for Shannon as an aviation services centre and not just an airport.
