My father and his collegues use the route every week to get to Amsterdam. His company has been down sizing its once large office at Shannon, in favour of Amsterdam. With Shannon losing its most vital link, people in the office are worried about it. No one fancies moving to Amsterdam, or losing their jobs.
Funny, for years we were told that the key link for businesses was from SNN to the USA, with little mention of LHR. BTW Aer Lingus do serve AMS non-stop from ORK, which I would have thought was a more pleasant prospect than a transfer via LHR (one of the most awkward airports through which to connect).
The point that the Shannon lobby are missing (or ignoring) here is that Aer Lingus has been privatised and, like any other
commercial company it will act in a manner that maximises return to shareholders (who, ironically, include the very workers complaining about today's developments). One has to assume that the company sees the immediate and future potential at BFS as far outstripping that at Shannon and that, while the SNN-LHR route may be viable, Belfast is expected to be more profitable.
Given that the last EI transatlantic departure from Shannon is in the early afternoon, it must lead to considerable inefficiencies to have ground staff on hand to service just two flights from London, arriving at 1630 and 2045 respectively.