Shannon still punching above its weight??? Where have you been for the past few months? Ryanair pulled 2 aircraft at the start of April and there's at least another one (or 2?) going at the end of October! Nearly every Ryanair route from Shannon has been either reduced in frequency or axed! In terms of longhaul, Shannon to Chicago is widely rumoured to be axed.
Thanks for that invaluable update en2r. For an airport like Shannon to have routes to Alicante, Birmingham, Beauvais, Boston, Bristol, Charleroi, Chicago, Edinburgh, Faro, Gatwick, Heathrow, Krakow, Liverpool, Lodz, Malaga, Manchester, Newark, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Prestwick, Stansted, Tenerife, Toronto, & Wroclaw (I've more than likely missed a few) is very impressive by my reckoning.
I certainly wouldn't imagine Ryanair basing any more than 2-3 aircraft there if it wasn't Ireland. Actually in terms of based aircraft, they don't seem to have been able to make up there minds on how many they'll base there for Winter 09/10 yet if their current schedule is anything to go by (which it isn't I presume!). I'm guessing it'll end up at 3 but there'll be a few time changes required in the mean time.