This article is from page 12 of the 2006-06-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
A second carrier of US military personnel could be on the verge of pulling out of Shannon after it was confirmed that World Airways, the largest transporter of American troops for the Pentagon, will move to Germany from July 1.
It has now emerged that North American Airlines, a sister company of World Airways, is also looking at alternatives to Shannon.
According to a company spokesman North American Airlines “have the same economic concerns as World Airways but there is no review in place at the moment.”
Shannon Airport is already set to lose millions of euro worth of Pentagon business, following confirmation that the worlds largest carrier of US military personnel is set pull out of the mid west airport next month.
If North American Airlines makes a similar move, the airport will lose at least half and as much as 75% of its US military transit traffic business.
World Airways confirmed last week that from July 1, they will use Leipzig in Germany as their primary technical stop for US military flights.
The move is expected to result in the loss of three flights and 750 troops a day at Shannon where 330,000 military personnel stopped over in 2005 alone. Shannon could lose an estimated €20 million in services, fees and charges. However, the effect will not be as serious as it might have been three years ago when US military traffic made up a much larger proportion of Shannon’s annual traffic. With the continued expansion of the airport, US military business at the moment only makes up approximately 10 per cent of the overall traffic at Shannon.
Despite last week’s announcement, World Airways maintain that it is still committed to the Clare airport.
The company spokesman said that “Shannon has always been one of our preferred locations in Europe and will continue to be so. We may continue to use Shannon periodically for World Airways and North American Airline flights. We have utilised Shannon successfully for many years.”