This article is from page 6 of the 2006-11-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
AGREEMENT with the unions on a package which would allow Shannon Airport to move forward will be achieved before Christmas. That was the prediction by Airport Executive Chairman, Pat Shanahan, when he came as an invited speaker to address Clare County Council last night.
Shanahan told the meeting that after 18 months of negotiations, he now hoped that talks, which are on-going under the auspices of the LRC, will be successful, “in time for a busy festive period.”
And he promised councillors that “no-one will be coerced or forced to take a redundancy package. Staff will be made an offer and if they don’t want it, then they can stay.”
The Executive Chairman was making a presentation and answering questions from elected representatives on the situation at, and future plans for, Shannon.
He told the meeting that passenger numbers would top 3.6 million by the end of the year. This is an increase of 21 per cent in European traffic, 11 per cent in US traffic and 13 per cent in UK traffic. The one downturn this year was in military traffic, which has been cut by 60 per cent.
He added that with the advent of open skies, “we are aggressively going after the North American market and advertising that the place people want to be flying into to spend their holidays in the west of Ireland is Shannon, not Dublin and then taking a four-hour bus ride.”
The decision to close the bar at the airport and cut back on opening hours in the restaurant was one forced by staff shortages, Shanahan said.
“We cannot afford to increase direct employment and the way forward is to provide state of the art franchising facilities,” he added.
He warned councillors that the “biggest problem facing Shannon Airport is financial viability and this needs to be addressed urgently.” He added that other cost factors besides staffing, including energy costs and rates would also have to be addressed.
As well as targeting increased passenger numbers and decreased costs, the cargo and property elements of the business would be developed.
“We are operating in a very competitive market and we want to have a world-class facility at Shannon. We need a seismic shift at Shannon and a point has been reached where management and unions are ready to make that shift. In this environment, people will have long-term, sustainable jobs.”