This article is from page 5 of the 2008-01-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
SUPPORTERS of the restoration of the Shannon/Heathrow route have hit back at claims by an economist that the route is not important.
Separately, Cityjet were this week understood to be considering a fur- ther connectivity lifeline between Shannon and Schipol Airport in Am- sterdam.
A special report was produced by economist Sean Barrett to accom- pany the ESRI quarterly economic commentary.
Barrett said in the report that argu- ments favouring Government inter- vention to retain the Shannon-Hea- throw service were “weak”.
The report highlights how just 38 per cent of the 856,000 passengers who flew from Shannon to London in 2006 went to Heathrow. The bal- ance used services to Stanstead, Gat- wick and Luton.
In the 10 year period to 2006 the numbers flying from Shannon to Heathrow declined by four per cent while the volume of passengers trav- elling between the airport and Lon- don actually rose by 156 per cent.
But John King of Shannon Devel- opment said that “even if only one third of passengers connect on or use Heathrow, that’s still an awful lot of people.
“It’s easy to dismiss it if youre just
talking statistics but the business case set out by the Atlantic Connec- tivity Alliance is the reality.”
King added that this case was up- held by the fact that Cityjet have an- nounced their route to Paris from Shannon and they saw a market in providing connectivity to a major European hub.
Passenger figures for Shannon have jumped this year by 2.95 million.
According to a report on Irish air- ports in the year to date, published by the Economic and Social Research Institute, Shannon 1s connected to 39 airports serviced by nine airlines.
While lobby groups here including the Atlantic Connectivity Alliance have called for the Government to force Aer Lingus to reverse its deci- sion to axe the Shannon-Heathrow route from January 14, Barrett says he does not agree.
Meanwhile Cityjet, an Air France subsidiary which has recently an- nounced flights betwen Shannon and Paris, is looking at flying into the Amsterdam airport from Shannon.
The Amsterdam route would prob- ably depend on the support for the Paris route, airline sources say.
Separately, Aer Rianta has won one of its largest ever contracts which will see it develop operations at a new terminal in Moscow, in a deal which will generate more than €1 billion over seven years.