Passenger figures at Shannon for first half of year up 15%

Passenger figures at Shannon are up 15 per cent for the first six months of the year, according to the latest figures for the airport.

Traffic for the first three weeks of July is also up by 20 per cent according to Shannon chief executive Neil Pakey, who said the airport was well ahead of exceeding its double-digit target increase in passenger numbers this year.

At the announcement of a new Ryanair daily service from Shannon to Manchester and a weekly service to Kaunus in Lithuania, Mr Pakey said the new routes would help towards building a "more balanced economy for Ireland".

“We are out there selling the west of Ireland and that’s obviously a new message for people who were being hammered with the message that Dublin was the gateway to Ireland,” he said.

“What I see happening is that Ryanair and others are helping to build a more balanced economy; not everything has to be Dublin central.”

The new Ryanair services from Shannon were announced as part of the company’s extended winter schedule which starts on October 26th.

Last month the airline announced five other new routes from Shannon – Berlin, Fuerteventura, Krakow, Paris and Warsaw and extra flights to/from London Stansted.

It is expected the new winter schedule will deliver more than 300,000 extra seats at Shannon and more than one million extra customers through Ireland’s airports

Staying competitive

When asked about staying competitive at the newly independent Shannon airport and making economies, Mr Pakey admitted the overall payroll amount was on the “high side”

“You have to look at everything. There is no doubt there are legacy issues from the old company. Some of those are easier to deal with than others and you’ve got to respect contracts as well. We will need to look at the non-payroll costs, the payroll costs and, if we want to grow the business in the interest of everyone here, we have got to get our cost base sustainable.

He added: “The overall payroll amount is on the high side but that might be about cost efficiencies that might not actually affect the rates of pay that people get.”

Ryanair’s Peter Bellew said the Government’s decision to abolish airport tax contributed to the announcement. He was critical of prices at Cork Airport, which is losing its Ryanair service to Vilnius in Lithuania.

“Shannon Airport has been far more progressive in terms of its pricing and its charges than Cork has. Cork hasn’t responded in the same way as the other airports to the change in the travel tax,” Mr Bellew said.

“We have just found the prices are just too expensive in Cork at the moment to develop new services. We would love to more services from Cork, The infrastructure that’s there is just too expensive at the moment it doesn’t make financial sense for us.”