AN already positive year got even better for Shannon Airport last week with confirmation that Norwegian Air International is to increase capacity on its service to Stewart Airport in New York next summer.
After a strong performance in 2017, its inaugural year, extra flights this summer and a strengthening of services for the coming winter, the airline has now announced it is to increase its Shannon-Stewart operations from three to five weekly services next summer
The move reaffirms Shannon’s growth potential on transatlantic services, the latest announcement resulting in an additional 23,000 seats on the Stewart service, which represents a 28 per cent increase.
Shannon Airport Managing Director Andrew Murphy said that getting Norwegian Air International on board in the first instance was a strong statement about Shannon’s potential and this has been backed up by this latest increase.
“We will have nine services in all next summer, five to Stewart and four to Providence, Rhode Island, more than double what we had last year when Norwegian Air International commenced its Shannon operations with four services in total.
“There’s a very strong traditional market out of Shannon to the east coast of the States and there’s certainly a huge demand for services out of the US to Shannon. The Shannon brand resonates very well in the US.”
Shannon Group chief executive Matthew Thomas said that the additional capacity from Norwegian Air International is going to be a big plus for the airport next year.
“It will follow the huge success we have had this year already, with six airlines operating to seven transatlantic destinations this summer, giving Shannon its busiest summer season in 17 years. It’s not just summer season success as we have year-round services to the east coast of the US. This is proving to be a very positive year for Shannon.
“Shannon is the only airport on the Wild Atlantic Way with daily flights to and from the US and is making an ever-increasing impact on tourism in this region. Shannon is the key gateway to what has been one of the great tourism industry successes globally this decade,” Mr Thomas declared.
by Tom McCullough
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