FIANNA Fáil Spokesperson on Tourism and Aviation Cathal Crowe has expressed hope that Shannon Airport’s new baggage screening facilities will play a part in luring new airlines to look to Shannon for routes and bases.
The €12 million facility has been shown to Oireachtas representatives today, as part of Minister of State for Transport Hildegarde Naughton’s visit to Shannon Airport.
“Today, as part of a visit to Shannon Airport in the company of Minister Hildegarde Naughton, I was shown the state-of-the-art baggage screening facilities, recently installed on the airside of the airport.
“The new facilities will mean that luggage will make its way from the departure hall through a series of conveyor belts into the new baggage screening hall, which has brand new scanning machines which can detect dangerous items packed into luggage.
“From a passenger’s point of view, they will see very little change as most of this will happen behind the scenes but there are two key advantages to this system.
“Firstly, in developing this new baggage screening system, Shannon becomes the first airport in the EU to have a screening system that perfectly aligns both the European and TSA screening requirements that operate in the US.
“This, on top of pre-clearance that already operates at Shannon, should make it far more attractive for airlines to use Shannon for a stepping stone from Europe to North America.
“It should also make Shannon more appealing to air traffic from further afield such as the Middle East.
“Secondly, luggage now leaving a flight from Shannon Airport will be seamlessly transferred onto connecting flights to and in North America.
“This will be very attractive to returning passengers to the US and indeed Irish passengers making an outbound journey.
“The overall cost of these new facilities has exceeded €12 million, with the government providing €6m of that capital funding.
“This gives Shannon an edge over other European airports and I know that Mary Considine and her team will use this as a marketing tool in attracting more airlines to fly to and from Shannon.
“As my party’s aviation spokesperson, I will continue to support the airport in any way I can and I hope to be able to advance proposals to revamp the airport’s baggage reclaim and immigration hall.”
