I know I'll probably be shot down as anti Shannon for making this post and daring to question the wisdom of the SAA board, but is any airline at Shannon actually paying full charges?
Ryanair - as detailed above pay just 50c per passenger
Cityjet - Got massive incentives to come to Shannon
Aer Lingus - Got substantial reductions to continue their US services
Belavia - Presumably got a big reduction to return after axing the route
Centralwings - are axing their longest running route Gdansk, leaving Katowice and Warsaw which are both relatively new routes and are probably still under the initial charge reduction
Delta & Continental - are getting a reduction for operating Winter services
This just leaves a few summer only services to the states which probably got big reductions so they would continue post Open Skies and the charters who it would appear are the only ones actually paying the full charges. Presumably another record deficit this year. If Shannon was in the open market it would have gone bankrupt by now. Someone has to pay the bills!
On another note, I don't know if it has been mentioned here already but it was reported in Yesterday's Sunday Independent that the proposed charter services from the US to Shannon this summer will not now go ahead. This has been blamed on the weak dollar.
Last edited by en2r; 24th Mar 2008 at 22:04.