Inside Shannon

Inside Shannon is a new six part documentary series starting on RTE One television tonight Thursday September 3 at 7pm. Limerick Post Newspaper got to watch the first episode of the show documenting one year in the life of Shannon Airport in the company of Airport Operations Director, Niall Maloney.

THE iconic Shannon Airport is home to the longest runway in Ireland, Europe’s first transatlantic route and the world’s first ever Duty Free shop. Cork based Television Production Company AV3 were given unprecedented access to the airport operations and filmed for over a year. The resulting six half hour programmes promises to give viewers a unique insight into life inside the international airport.
Airport Operations Director, Niall Maloney has worked at the airport for over 34 years and is one of the faces that turn up regularly on the new TV show. His hopes for the show are that viewers in the mid-west can be proud of their airport.
He says, “I feel at the end of the day people will be proud of the airport.”
Filmed for over a year by AV3, Niall says that the staff at the airport took some time to be comfortable in front of the cameras even though the film crew stood back and didn’t interfere but as the weeks went on they became more relaxed,
“And then became too relaxed”, laughs Niall. “Most of the series will be made up of the later stuff.”
There is no shortage of drama in the series as the first episode sees fire services rush to an emergency landing and Niall has to deal with an aircraft traffic jam as the world’s first duty free shop gets a makeover in the middle of its busy season.
“The airport is a vibrant place, open 24 hours of the day, 365 days of the year, things do happen. Its not all about passengers and planes, you have human stories, things not going right that needs to be corrected. The series might demonstrate that there is a lot more to Shannon Airport than people might think, issues that we have to address on a daily basis, the key staff and the jobs we have to do.”
As Airport Operations Director, Niall is responsible for the day to day running of the airport, security, engineering and fire and rescue services so his phone is never off. On the day we meet he has deal with the repercussions of a fire at a hanger at Dublin Airport which meant that Shannon took on diversions.
The week before the airport saw the return of the Corbett family with Jack and Sarah Corbett from North Carolina where the family had won a legal battle to bring the children back to Limerick after their father was found with fatal head injuries in his US home on August 2. The airport arranged a private room in arrivals for the family to reunite before meeting the press.
Niall comment that these are the exceptional circumstances that the staff at Shannon are always prepared for.
“We are community airport. Our role is to be with the community. Obviously you have had people who have had a very trying time. Like any community you just row in and you support them giving them some private time to meet the relatives before they went out to meet the press.”
The airport due to its location plays an important role in international emergency landings. Between 70% and 80% of all trans-atlantic traffic goes through Irish airspace. Ireland is the first landmass when you fly from the US to Europe and Shannon gets a significant number of diversions whether they are technical emergencies, medical emergencies.
Niall says, “We get a lot of that which goes unseen by the general public. We would spend many millions of euro every year upgrading our runways and taxiways. That is challenging and demanding and it is all part of the infrastructure that goes unseen by the public. I often say, we are like swans wandering gracefully across the water but the legs are going like bejaysus under the surface.”
The TV show picks up on all the dramas, big and small that pass through the airport the Hen Parties, the Wedding Parties, the return of a victorious boxing world champion. As anyone in the mid-west knows flying from Shannon Airport is a stress-free experience with plenty capacity to handle what the schedules throw up every day.
Inside Shannon starts on RTE One television tonight Thursday September 3 at 7pm.