Aer Lingus has announced a 20 per cent increase in capacity on its Shannon to Boston route.
The expansion will be in effect for twelve weeks in the peak summer period, June through August 2015.
The good news for the airport comes at a time when passenger traffic has been growing steadily. Passenger numbers over August and September showed a 22 per cent and 17 per cent increase, respectively, on the same months last year.
The August and September passenger growth figures came ten days after Shannon scooped the top award at the European Regions Airline Association Awards.
The biggest percentage growth on the same months last year was across the airport’s European network, with a 73 per cent rise in August (up from 36,702 in same month last year to 63,422 this year) thanks to the eight new destinations across the airport’s continental network.
August also saw a 9 per cent increase in transatlantic passengers numbers, while there was also a gain of 5 per cent in UK traffic. September also showed vast growth on twelve months earlier, with a 51 per cent increase in passengers using European services (from 32,342 in Sept 2013 to 48,874), an 11 per cent increase in transatlantic passengers and UK up by 3 per cent..
Welcoming the figures, Airport CEO Neil Pakey said, “What is most pleasing is we are achieving growth across all our markets. Last year we saw the biggest gains on transatlantic but this year the biggest increase has been in European services, with growth also on our UK network.
“All of this is particularly important this year with the launch of the Wild Atlantic Way. Shannon is the only airport on the Atlantic seaboard that services Ireland’s three main markets, Europe, the UK and US Airport so it is the key gateway airport for the Wild Atlantic Way. It is good news all around that we are achieving these growth levels this year.”
