SHANNON

[Charlie Roy]

SNN maybe better off with FR paying their fair share on a few routes rather than paying half nothing on alot of routes.

I'm fairly certain that Ryanair will be paying the same charges when they continue the Liverpool and Edinburgh routes. They have reversed the decision to axe them before they actually got axed....

[fivejuliet]

Well, IMO if Aer Lingus are to announce anything for the sun this summer they'd want to be doing it pretty pronto. Surely with the takeover of the ATR on some routes, reduced capacity at Gatwick and Belfast will mean there must be a spare A320 somewhere to give to Shannon for some sun flights

[Charlie Roy]

Aer Lingus (regional)

reduced capacity at Gatwick and Belfast will mean there must be a spare A320 somewhere to give to Shannon for some sun flights

Aer Lingus have said openly that opportunies exist at Shannon for some shorthaul routes (they named Birmingham and Manchester), and they said that were they to operate these routes it would be with an ATR of Aer Arann.
There has been zero mention of sun routes or an A320 for Shannon.

[fivejuliet]

I read several statements last month that indicated they'd look at something a bit more than Manchester or Birmingham. That has been the most recent indications they've given

Also read somewhere else, cant remember where that apparently authorities in the canaries that they'd signalled an interest in providing a flight.

Therefore there has been a little more than "Zero" mention. That said, I'd hate to see numbers suffer in cork

[Charlie Roy]

Regarding what the CEO said:
Aer Lingus may offer more Shannon routes - The Irish Times - Fri, Jan 29, 2010

The airline’s chief executive, Christoph Mueller, indicated that any new short-haul routes would be operated by its regional service, run by Aer Arann, and could involve flights to the UK and other airports in Ireland.

“We will try to increase connectivity to and from Shannon, not only to the United States but also intra-Ireland and from Shannon to the UK because there is a strong market to Manchester and Birmingham. But you cannot service this with an [Airbus] A320 jet. But we feel obliged and committed to do whatever we can.”

But if Aer Lingus do magic up a spare A320 and they decide it would be best used in Shannon; then more power to them, I have nothing against it. I suppose Faro, Barcelona, Alicante and a couple of the Canaries would be possible routes. But I still deem it highly unlikely

[BFS101]

reduced capacity at Gatwick and Belfast

Belfast are back up to three based buses for the summer, from two this winter, and adding an extra daily LHR. What do you mean about reduced capacity, or do you mean this winter??

[philbky]

there is a strong market to Manchester and Birmingham. But you cannot service this with an [Airbus] A320 jet..

So much for Aer Lingus market research, or perhaps for what will be their pricing policy under the new leadership. I've flown SNN -MAN regularly in recent years on FR and they had no problem getting 75% and greater loads on the route. FR won't, of course, re-instate MAN in a hurry as they've fallen out with them as well.

[Charlie Roy]

Looking at Shannon Airport's official route wish list ( The Route Shop | Shannon Airport (SNN/EINN) ) some obvious exceptions include:
Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle, Krakow, Faro, Alicante, Barcelona, Brussels.

Maybe some these destinations are not on their wish list because Shannon Airport know of imminent route announcements of which Joe Public is currently ignorant?

PS - I never heard of Franfurt before

[Jamesair]

NCL had some decent pax figures when Ryanair briefly operated it on what seemed like a spoiling operation. Figures like that would look good on a smaller aircraft......the demand is there.

[Charlie Roy]

Meanwhile someone has been over zealous on Wikipedia, already deleting the routes Ryanair are due to axe.

Shannon Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[en2r]

So much for Aer Lingus market research, or perhaps for what will be their pricing policy under the new leadership. I've flown SNN -MAN regularly in recent years on FR and they had no problem getting 75% and greater loads on the route. FR won't, of course, re-instate MAN in a hurry as they've fallen out with them as well.

I don't think there was a problem with load factors on Shannon-Manchester, I think the issue was yield. Ryanair had to heavily discount the fares in order to fill the planes to the point where the route was loss making (it also affected loads and yield on Shannon-Liverpool). Aer Lingus are obviously aware of this, and would seem to have done enough research to know that they couldn't operate an A320 profitably on the route (i.e. they couldn't fill an A320 at the fares that would make the service profitable), and that an ATR72 operation would be more profitable.

But who knows? However, if they do launch the route with an ATR72, and it's as profitable as Shannonites claim, then I'm sure they'll upgrade it to an A320.

[philbky]

The real reason the FR service to MAN was withdrawn was that the flight, which was MAN based, was axed along with all the other MAN based flights (except Dublin) when FR withdrew after not getting the deal they wanted at MAN.

The yield is debatable as FR is very cagey about this but the history of the service and its increase in frequency over the period it did operate tends to lead to the belief that it was profitable. As to its effect on the LPL service, having been a frequent user on that route as well, I'd say the effect was negligible and any early migration of pax was soon made up.

[CCR]

Some great news for Shannon

Cargo deal key to future growth – Shannon chief - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

Have not heard of Lynx air cargo but Shannon would be a great cargo hub for Europe, especially if the likes of FedEx or UPS could be attracted to set up a base.

The other big challenge for Shannon is to improve access to the airport.
The roads from Dublin/Limerick and Galway are being vastly improved but why wasn't Shannon airport included in the new Galway to Limerick railway..with at least a spur to Shannon being created??

[MAN777]

Wont happen, not on a big scale anyway.

Most major freight hubs have extensive integrated trucking operations as well as aircraft. Shannon is out of loop in the world market, a relatively small population and manufacturing base could not support the investment that a major freight carrier would demand. Even Manchester with its huge catchment area and large trucking operation is struggling to attract major cargo carriers (except chinese) so what chance Shannon.

Parcel companies wont be interested either because they also rely on a huge fleet of vehicles to feed into centrally placed airports such as EMA(DHL) PARIS (Fedex) and UPS somewhere in Germany.

Now if you could convince MOL to start buying 737QCs ?????

[en2r]

Some great news for Shannon

Cargo deal key to future growth – Shannon chief - Irish, Business - Independent.ie

Have not heard of Lynx air cargo but Shannon would be a great cargo hub for Europe, especially if the likes of FedEx or UPS could be attracted to set up a base.

I think you've misread the article. Lynx is the name of the cargo hub project they are proposing. As far as I know nothing has actually been announced or agreed in any way, they are simply making a proposal to build a cargo hub (which I presume they want the government or the DAA to pay for).

Usual Shannon propoganda, Aer Lingus is evil, the airport should have done a deal with Ryanair at whatever cost regardless of whether it was actually profitable for the airport (and I presume they wanted the Government/DAA to pick up the tab for any losses).

The other big challenge for Shannon is to improve access to the airport.
The roads from Dublin/Limerick and Galway are being vastly improved but why wasn't Shannon airport included in the new Galway to Limerick railway..with at least a spur to Shannon being created??

This was examined. However it was ruled out on cost grounds. There simply wouldn't be enough passengers using it to justify the cost.

[Hobby Flyer]

SNN became an anachronism when the DC-8 and 707 came on stream back in the late '50s early '60s.

I refuse to use it to fly to the US, preferring to support my local airport and go to the US via LHR. It's as cheap, comfier, (I hate 757s) and best of all, I'm not restricted to the East Coast of the US: I can go to most major cities in North America from LHR.

And of course when I get back late at night I'm not faced with a 2 hour drive down a boreen to get back to Cork. We have way too many airports in this country. We should perhaps have just two: Dublin, and possibly Shannon, if it had a high speed link to Cork and more connections in the US. As for Waterford, Knock, Galway, Sligo, Kerry "International," Donegal, and the rest, they are a monument to political expediency and the kind of gombeenism that has driven the country into the mess it is in at present.

And I include the vast expense spent on the recent refurbishment of Cork in that. We have just over 4 million people, yet we all expect to be able to fly anywhere on the planet direct, from somewhere on our doorstep. All I want is an efficient link to Heathrow, or Schipol, which enables me to avoid the black hole of Calcutta that is Dublin, or the US Base In The Bog that is Shannon.

Without the frills, Cork was providing that quite adequately. But now that politicians have spent hundreds of millions of Euro building an extension that no one seemed to want it has become uncompetitive.

[Tom the Tenor]

The vast expense put into the Cork facility is but a drop in the ocean when you consider what is now being put into the new terminal at Dublin and the favouritism show to snn that went on for decades and yet they still come back again looking for even more with the proposed cargo project as outlined above. Whatever else may be said at least the new Cork terminal is being used - all that is needed now is for the DAA management at Cork to show a measure of pride in what they now have and get some decent business going and not to be off waffling about green shoots of recovery from the likes of baby. That will not count for much now after another few weeks, will it? If you have not heard bmi baby are pulling out of Cork and it is day, day to EMA and Manchester.

[fullrich]

And of course when I get back late at night I'm not faced with a 2 hour drive down a boreen to get back to Cork.

We have just over 4 million people, yet we all expect to be able to fly anywhere on the planet direct, from somewhere on our doorstep

Contradiction or What? In other words as long as you can fly everywhere from Cork then its fine and to hell with the rest. Typical of what to expect when theres even a whiff of good news for SNN.

[CCR]

As someone who has to fly from Cork to the US quite often, I always prefer to fly via Dublin. It is far easier to connect in Dublin than LHR. No changing terminals in Dublin and no long security lines compared to LHR.
I only fly through Heathrow when the US destination is not available from Dublin.
As for Shannon, when they upgrade the Cork-Limerick road to motorway standard or provide a direct rail link from Cork, I will use it then. Though by that stage, I'm sure there will probably be direct flights to the US from Cork!
As regards, the number of airports in Ireland, I think possibly only Sligo should be left go. It's better to give people a convenient choice. We have 4 airports in Munster, 3 in Connaught, 4 in Ulster and of course only 1 in Leinster, Dublin which is really the only major airport in Ireland and is one of the top 10 busiest airports in Europe.

[vkid]

seriously Lads...

why does a post about a possible cargo operation at SNN again turn into loads of SNN bashing from the Cork mafia on here..??

Usual suspects and points that ye have made over and over...and over and over.