This article is from page 3 of the 2006-06-27 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
SHANNON Airport is not viable, is losing money and now has accumulated debts of €100 million.
That is the bleak assessment offered by the chairman of the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), Gary McGann who has also cast serious doubt over the Shannon Airport Authority (SAA) assuming full control of affairs at Shannon in the proposed break-up of the three state-owned airports.
In a presentation to the Oireachtas’s Transport Committee, Mr McGann said: “Shannon Airport is not viable. It is losing money. Positive discrimination is already happening. If it were not, Shannon would not be able to continue to survive as it has done in recent years.
“In the past year or two, it has been supplementing its income and getting into positive cash flow mode because of military traffic, which is not something it can depend on in the long term. That business is already declining.”
Mr McGann said that Shannon Airport generated €9 million in profit per annum from the military traffic. But, he added that “there is no prospect at all of Shannon being viable in the near term with its current cost base”.
In response to Mr McGann, vicechair of the committee, Peter Power (FF) asked whether Shannon could be made fully independent. Replying, Mr McGann said: “In accordance with the mandate we have, which is that the airports must have viable business plans, the Acting Chairman is quite correct. There is no possibility of…”
Deputy Power completed the sentence: “Delegated authority or no delegated authority, it will still be part of the Dublin Airport Authority.
In response, Mr McGann said:
Yes, and the consequences of that are problematic in their own right in that the DAA gets no compensation for losses in Shannon, and presumably rightly so. Shannon losses will continue to be funded by it. I do not mean to be trite, but we have a commercial mandate and it does not include positive discrimination.”
Clare Senator, Timmy Dooley said yesterday that he would be surprised if Shannon achieved independence before the next general election.
“I can’t see it happening in the short-term and that may give the opportunity for a rethink. Giving Shannon autonomy has been excellent, but it may not be necessary to go the ultimate step to make Shannon fully independent.”
Deputy James Breen (Ind) said that “Government policy in relation to Shannon Airport is in disarray.