PDA

View Full Version : It's the end for Shannon


Ye Olde Pilot
13th Jan 2008, 12:35
Just like Prestwick, Shannon is now facing the fact that technology and economics leave it in a rural backwater from whence it came. Aer Lingus have pulled the plug. Just cargo from now on I guess.
Story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7185833.stm

PIK3141
13th Jan 2008, 12:54
Just like Prestwick ??? !!! The Prestwick that has never been busier with passengers, the largest dedicated B747F / Antonov freight / transit operation in the UK, and around 4000 aviation jobs within a mile ?
If any comparison with Prestwick is to be made, it would suggest that Shannon will grow out of the loss of Aer Lingus.

fivejuliet
13th Jan 2008, 13:30
"The end for Shannnon?"

I hardly think so, and "cargo from now on"- it being the second busiest airport in Ireland, and you make these assumptions...??

Skipness One Echo
13th Jan 2008, 13:40
Aer Lingus HAVE NOT pulled out. The long haul A330 services are still routing through and one aircraft based at Dublin. Although for how long remains to be seen.
The Prestwick analogy is a ctually a good one as they are very similar airports in many ways. Wartime airfields that time caught up on, where the national carrier left, reliant on transit traffic, have loads of interesting movements and Ryanair has them both by the balls.

Shannon still has Delta, US Airways and Continental in addition to the Ryanair base so it's complete rubbish to say "just cargo from now on".

Interesting times and good luck to all.

ryan2000
13th Jan 2008, 13:48
Belfast International and not Shannon is the 2nd busiest airporrt in Ireland.

However I agree that Shannon is far from finished though you'd wander what'll happen if McCain or Obama make good their promise to pull the troops out of Iraq.

As far as the North Atlantic is concerned it looks as if Open Skies is only having a minimal impact but it's early days yet. The fact that Cork hasn't got itself a JFK or BOS service must be helping them.

eastern wiseguy
13th Jan 2008, 15:02
Belfast International and not Shannon is the 2nd busiest airporrt in Ireland


Actually SNN is the 2ND busiest in Ireland. BFS is in NORTHERN IRELAND..:ok::ok:

MAN777
13th Jan 2008, 15:03
Belfast is in Northern Ireland and part of Great Britain (or have we given it back while I have been asleep) therefore Belfast is not in the Ireland airport size tables.

vkid
13th Jan 2008, 15:09
how little you know about SNN ye olde pilot..

interesting article in todays Business Post (http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=THE+MARKET-qqqs=themarket-qqqid=29517-qqqx=1.asp)


Aer Lingus sells just one third of Belfast seats
13 January 2008 By Nicola Cooke
Aer Lingus has sold an average of just one third of its seats on the controversial new Belfast to London Heathrow route for the first month of its operation. The service begins tomorrow, as the Shannon-Heathrow route ends.

A total of 32,364 seats are available on the return route for the first month, with three 174-seat aircraft flying three return trips daily. With an average load factor of just 35 per cent, it means only 11,327 of these flights have been sold to date - despite being available online since early August last.

Many Aer Lingus return flights from Heathrow to Belfast Aldergrove for the first month of service cost stg£1, and £1 fares can also be secured from Belfast to Heathrow for this period. These fares and a 35 per cent load factor compare with an average load factor of almost 80 per cent - and €80 one-way flights - on the axed Shannon-Heathrow route.


The Belfast Aldergrove to Heathrow route is competing with a Ryanair Belfast city airport to Stansted service, a Cityjet Belfast city to London city airport route and a BMI Belfast city to London Heathrow service.

Passenger figures on Aer Lingus flights from Belfast to Amsterdam - which started on December 10 - are also reported to be poor. The majority of return flights from Amsterdam currently cost just £2.

Aer Lingus’s corporate affairs director, Enda Corneille, said the company was ‘‘delighted’’ with bookings on the Belfast-Heathrow route, and that people booked ‘‘very late’’ on this route and the Amsterdam route.

An Aer Lingus spokesman previously told The Sunday Business Post that passengers travelling to Heathrow usually booked ‘‘two to three weeks in advance’’.

‘‘All these flights do not cost £1 or £2 - as they are booked, they increase in price - but we are a low fares airline and offer low prices on almost every flight in the system,” Corneille said.

‘‘We don’t comment on load factors for individual routes. Flights [from Belfast] after Easter to Faro, Malaga, Barcelona and Budapest are booking very well, and in most cases, quicker than from our bases in the Republic.

‘‘We plan to sell half a million seats in our first full year of operation from Belfast, from the 700,000 available,” he said.

An industry source said an average load factor of 35 per cent would have to double for the Heathrow service to be commercially viable.

beamwidth
13th Jan 2008, 15:29
Belfast is in Northern Ireland and part of Great Britain (or have we given it back while I have been asleep) therefore Belfast is not in the Ireland airport size tables

i think you were asleep whilst studying geography in school. belfast is in the united kingdom, not great britain.

welcome to geo-political studies 101

smudgethecat
13th Jan 2008, 15:45
Er, i think you will find there one and the same beamwidth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain ,perhaps you also dozed of for a while

eastern wiseguy
13th Jan 2008, 15:53
Sorry Smudge.....but my passport says the UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND.

EW ...wideawake

RFFS
13th Jan 2008, 15:57
Dont let my other half hear you say that Belfast is in Ireland or you might get buried in a mound of potatoes.

Matt101
13th Jan 2008, 16:00
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but wikidpedia is about as accurate as my shot, (that's to say not very,) as it is edited by the public.

Indeed the other chap is quite right. The name "Great Britain" has not referred to N Ireland since the good friday agreement.

Hence "Elizabeth II, of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Northern Ireland, Queen" and the fact that this is what it says on your passport.

However now I am just splitting hairs.

smudgethecat
13th Jan 2008, 16:12
What the hell has the good friday agreement got to do with anything? as far as i know it didnt create a united ireland did it? therefore Britain still comprises of England Scotland Wales and NI ,as does the UK

MarkD
13th Jan 2008, 16:19
YOP - post your mouldy old "news" here:

Shannon: http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=200353
Aer Lingus: http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=290291
Belfast: http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=281462

Skipness One Echo
13th Jan 2008, 16:40
Great Britain is the union of Scotland with England and Wales.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and remains so today. Britain is shorthand for the UK but all legal documents and Government terms always use the term UK as that is the nation state.
Within the nation state are the four home nations of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Legally, we are and remain, the United Kingdon of Great Britian and Northern Ireland. Should the North vote to join the Republic that will change, but not until then.

ian176
13th Jan 2008, 16:44
Great Britain is Eng, Sco and Wales.
United Kingdom is GB + NI.

The poster of the wiki link was nearly right - the first link within it is right.

ek_a340
13th Jan 2008, 16:47
how ususal that a topic involving a part of Northern Ireland should turn into a political debate :rolleyes: and for the record, UK refers to all the member states (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland). Great Britain refers only to England, Scotland and Wales, so Northern Ireland is part of the UK but not Great Britain (or the 'mainland'), however these terms are often used interchangably, thats why some people are confused

5milesbaby
13th Jan 2008, 16:51
Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales

United Kingdom - England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland

British Isles - England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and about 5000 islands including the Isle of Wight, The Channel Islands, the Scilly Isles, Orkney, Shetland, the inner and outer Hebrides plus many other offshore islands

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/britain/britishisles.htm

frostbite
13th Jan 2008, 16:54
Jet Blast here we come..........?

ryan2000
13th Jan 2008, 17:38
Why not settle the argument by saying that Shannon is the 2nd busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland and that Belfast International is the busiest airport in Northern Ireland and the 2nd busiest on the Island of Ireland.

ek_a340
13th Jan 2008, 18:24
ryan2000Why not settle the argument by saying that Shannon is the 2nd busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland and that Belfast International is the busiest airport in Northern Ireland and the 2nd busiest on the Island of Ireland


:D applause from here

CCR
13th Jan 2008, 18:29
Belfast international is currently the 2nd busiest airport in Ireland but it's only a matter of time before it will be eclipsed by Cork with its growth rates over the last decade to be the nation's second busiest.
Belfast is in Northern Ireland, a small part of Ireland that currently is in the UK. It is not in Britain:ugh:
Politically, the Belfast agreement enables the reunification of Ireland when a majority in BOTH parts of Ireland vote for it. For now, most people are content to have the British subsidize the poorest part of Ireland for another couple of decades.:)

MAN777
13th Jan 2008, 18:50
Apologies for getting my GB and UK mixed up, created a bit of amusing banter though:)

PIK3141
13th Jan 2008, 18:53
I thought this thread was about Shannon. :confused:

akerosid
13th Jan 2008, 19:18
:sad:

Last flight, EI 383, now en route, ETA in SNN is 2120.

Certainly, a sad day for SNN, but not the end. It's good to see that there are fighting back and every success to them. And an annual pax handling figure north of 3m is hardly the sign of a declining airport. This will be a tough year, but SNN will survive.

How FF will fare in SNN next time out is really the big question; I personally hope they get rightly kicked. The govt's handling of this issue was appalling, incompetent and dishonest.

jimworcs
13th Jan 2008, 19:19
Congratulations to Woodlands Primary School though for a very comprehensive website! Impressed.

llanfairpg
13th Jan 2008, 19:23
Belfast international is currently the 2nd busiest airport in IrelandSo what, Ronaldsway is the busiest airport in the Isle of Man

peacock1
13th Jan 2008, 19:58
just don't ever try and tell me, sitting here, in County Cork, that I am on a British Isle!
Grandad and his mates sorted that a few years ago!:ok:

EI-BUD
13th Jan 2008, 20:06
The Airbus A320 enroute from LHR SNN will position out of Shannon and will be in BFS about 11pm.

Yes I agree a sad day for Shannon. However , we will all be glad of it up around Belfast International. I will be glad to see the green aircraft flying past.

CarbHeatIn
13th Jan 2008, 20:18
Ryanair pulling SNN-DUB I believe. Not available for booking after 03 FEB on website.

beamwidth
13th Jan 2008, 20:20
just don't ever try and tell me, sitting here, in County Cork, that I am on a British Isle!
Grandad and his mates sorted that a few years ago!

another geography lesson!

i guess that the geography class in cork is as good as the one in manchester

the archipellago of western europe covering britain , ireland and all other adjacent islands is called ..... the british isles.

you may not like it, but its a non political geographic fact.

it has nothing to do with sovereignty, nor has it anything to do with anything your grandad and his mates sorted out before, unless they were working for unesco or one of those type of bodies!

so, sorry buddy, the peoples republic of cork is where it is!

lesson over:ok:

EI-BUD
13th Jan 2008, 20:21
London-LHR Aer Lingus EI383 13-01-2008 21:05Arrived 2114

peacock1
13th Jan 2008, 20:27
....and on that "non - political geographical fact", Belfast is geographically in Ireland!

CarbHeatIn
13th Jan 2008, 20:31
another geography lesson!

i guess that the geography class in cork is as good as the one in manchester

the archipellago of western europe covering britain , ireland and all other adjacent islands is called ..... the british isles.

you may not like it, but its a non political geographic fact.

it has nothing to do with sovereignty, nor has it anything to do with anything your grandad and his mates sorted out before, unless they were working for unesco or one of those type of bodies!

so, sorry buddy, the peoples republic of cork is where it is!

lesson over


Depends what country your atlas was produced in! Many a fine map of "The British Isles" will have the 26 counties labelled as "Republic of Ireland" or even "Eire" when in fact the official name of the state as recognised by the UN/EU etc and on the pasport is plain old ''Ireland".

Officialdom in the UK seems to prefer to use ROI or EIRE instead of the correct Ireland. See arrivals channels at UK airports for example.

UEFA/FIFA/FAI do the same

en2r
13th Jan 2008, 20:35
Depends what country your atlas was produced in!
Ya, Irish produced atlases rarely if ever use the term British Isles, I've also seen American Atlases and they didn't use the term either. It seems to only be English produced atlases

BHDflyer
13th Jan 2008, 20:36
Why not settle the arguement by saying WHO CARES!

dublinamg
13th Jan 2008, 20:54
Just saw the RTE News and there was a report showing the last EI service taking off to LHR. Angry passengers blaming the government showing up!

Michael O'Leary was on as well walking round the terminal wearing a Munster rugby shirt with sandwich boards saying Bye Bye to high fares to London with Aer Lingus and had his soundbites on hand. Would any other CEO do something/think of doing something like that - especially when he owns 24% of the company!

en2r
13th Jan 2008, 21:00
Would any other CEO do something/think of doing something like that - especially when he owns 24% of the company!
29% infact

CarbHeatIn
13th Jan 2008, 21:05
Pity he wasn't asked about SNN-DUB being axed and why Ryanair are deserting the people of the mid-west by talking away their link to the nations capital.

peacock1
13th Jan 2008, 21:21
Typical lazy telejournalists,they forget to ask pertinet, relevant questions, when they see a publicity stunt stare them in the eye!
No one will ever make money on SNN-DUB.

Angry Rebel
14th Jan 2008, 08:31
"Pity he wasn't asked about SNN-DUB being axed and why Ryanair are deserting the people of the mid-west by talking away their link to the nations capital."

Why? Has he stopped the trains and buses and demolished the N7?

840
14th Jan 2008, 09:24
Belfast international is currently the 2nd busiest airport in Ireland but it's only a matter of time before it will be eclipsed by Cork with its growth rates over the last decade to be the nation's second busiest.

Even though as a Corkman I'd love to see that being true, it just isn't going to happen.

Look at the populations of Munster and Ulster. Munster has 1.1 million people. Ulster has 2 million (1.7 million of whom are in Northern Ireland). Munster has two medium-sized airports (Cork & Shannon) and two small (Kerry and Waterford). Ulster has two medium-sized (Belfast International and Belfast City) and one small (City of Derry) and a tiny one in Carrickfinn. Considering the populations served, the only way BFS could be smaller than ORK is if it lost a load of passengers to BHD, but then BHD would end up taking the title of second biggest.

747loadie
14th Jan 2008, 15:01
I always thought yhis forum was for people interested in aviation so why has it degenerated into a political debate as to GB and UK status.
Shannon is and always has been a good staging point (like PIK) for North Atlantic Traffic. The place to watch for this is now Leipzig which is attracting most if not all of the fuel stop traffic for the US military which has been staging thru SNN and in previous times PIK. This could ultimately cause the demise of SNN.:{

PPRuNe Pop
14th Jan 2008, 16:03
This is now lost for words!

Closed, but you can add comments to the SHANNON thread.