This article is from page 4 of the 2007-12-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
CITYJET boss Geoff White has moved to allay fears that the Shan- non-Paris route could be withdrawn NMDA BUDS ToR
He has also revealed that the airline is also looking at setting up a route between Shannon and London City airport.
While many welcomed last week’s announcement that the airline will be flying twice daily between Shannon and Paris they were cautious about the longevity of the route, the airline says it’s here to stay.
“This airline plans its routes
meticulously and we are rarely out by more than one or two per cent,” said Mr White.
“In my eight years in Cityjet we’ve never closed a route,” he said.
The airline’s focus 1s on feeding passengers to European _ business hubs and into the Air France/KLM network.
The company’s research for the route included meeting with business interests in the region although Mr White denied demanding that busi- nesses sign on the dotted line to sup- port the new route.
In looking at the proposed new route between Shannon and London
City — which Mr White describes as “quite promising” — Cityjet will also be taking account of figures showing that just one third of the 330,000 an- nual Shannon-Heathrow passengers who travelled with Aer Lingus were connecting on to the wider world.
The remaining 222,000 listed Lon- don as their final destination.
While Cityjet’s meticulous pre- planning of routes is in contrast to the low-fares speculative approach, White stresses that there is no such thing in business terms as a marriage for life.
“It [the route] needs to be showing a good trend in the first six months.
No company is going to effectively subsidise a service for any region,” he said.
Cityjet became the darling of Shannon supporters last week when it announced the new Paris Charles de Gaulle route, effectively recon- necting Shannon with a major Euro- pean hub. The new route will start in February just weeks after Aer Lingus closes its Shannon-Heathrow route.
Business and social interests in the region have warmly welcomed the Cityjet move and a further an- nouncement on a London route would copper-fasten the airline’s OE leom ttm ON EDK