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The birthplace of duty free in 1947, Shannon Airport aims to revitalise its business through its independent status |
IRELAND. Shannon Airport – the birthplace of duty free in 1947 – stemmed a five year decline in passenger numbers in 2013, its first year as an independent entity.
Passenger numbers hit 1.4 million, a marginal increase year-on-year (from 1.39 million). The turnaround arrests a downward spiral in passenger numbers over the past five years ranging between -7% and -37% annually.
The marginal growth came despite a difficult start to 2013: month-on-month passenger numbers continued to decrease through to June when the airport recorded its first monthly increase in five years.
The increase in H2 was most pronounced on transatlantic routes with +22% growth, thanks to new services to Chicago and Philadelphia. UK/European routes were also boosted by new services during 2013, to Alicante, Faro, Lanzarote and Liverpool.
Shannon Group CEO Neil Pakey said: “2013 was always going to be challenging, not least at the beginning of the year as we emerged from the state airports group (DAA). After a slow start in terms of passenger numbers over the first five months, trends improved considerably as the year drew on and the second half of the year was very positive. We are very confident that we will now achieve real growth as we move into 2014 and beyond.”
Shannon Group Chairman Rose Hynes predicted that growth will accelerate in 2014 from March onwards when services at the airport will be enhanced. Ryanair commences eight new routes – to Berlin, Paris, Fuerteventura, Warsaw, Faro, Munich, Nice and Krakow – and Aer Lingus Regional starts its daily Bristol service, increases Manchester from twice to three daily frequencies and doubles the existing Birmingham single daily service. 2014 will also see Aer Lingus fly daily on its Boston and JFK New York services while United Airlines will increase its capacity on the Shannon-Chicago service by +88% as it puts on an additional 90 flights during the annual schedule.
“The target of the independent Shannon Airport at the start of the year was to halt the decline in passenger numbers and we have achieved that,” said Hynes. “From here on we are in growth mode and have a very solid platform laid thanks to the advances made in 2013 but particularly the new routes secured that are now in place for 2014.
“We achieved our stated objectives for 2013 regarding passenger numbers and increased connectivity. This is a significant achievement and I would like to pay tribute to Neil Pakey and his team for their commitment and hard work. We are now working on many initiatives for 2014 which we hope will bring further success.”
Since January 2013 Shannon Airport (formerly operated by DAA) is run as a fully independent and autonomous airport. Aer Rianta International supplies the travel retail operation at Shannon, which is now managed in-house by the newly formed company.
