*Cathal Crowe with Dr Loic Guyon at Shannon Airport.
DEVELOPMENTS of further continental hub connectivity, the establishment of a cargo hub and drone technology are viewed as Shannon Airport’s biggest opportunities for future growth according to a Clare TD.
Currently Fianna Fáil spokesperson on aviation, Cathal Crowe (FF) has in his time as a TD been quite vocal on Shannon Airport as has been the case during his sixteen year stint as a county councillor.
Sources close to the Meelick native had previously told The Clare Echo that a run-in with him and Shannon Airport management occurred not long after his election to Dáil Éireann, three years ago. This was dismissed by Crowe who rather oddly compared himself to a crab, “I’ve never had my wings clipped and if they were clipped, some creatures, a crab is one example when it loses a claw it grows one back again, if anyone tried to clip my political wings I would grow them back overnight again”.
He explained that Shannon Airport is a catalyst for every industry in the county and region, “I decided a long time ago ever before I entered national politics that my big crusade would be to try improve Shannon Airport and to fight night and day for it to be in a better place, I tried to do that as a councillor, I’ve way more of a platform as a TD and I was delighted when Micheál Martin made me spokesperson for Aviation, it was the first time we ever had a role for aviation and I sometimes get criticised for being so Shannon focused and not focusing as much on other airports, I do work on other airports but I will pass no apology for having the back of Shannon at all times”.
“Shannon is in a very strong position, it is about three years ahead in terms of recovery growth of where people expected it to be. The eighteen month period of COVID lockdowns was miserable and detrimental to Shannon. Politically I decided this was really the time to step up and represent Shannon like it’s never been represented before, I’ve spoken on Shannon 380 times in the Dáil, I was relentless on it, party colleagues from around the country would joke when I didn’t mention Shannon because it became such of a hobby horse issue, I think Shannon is going well but it can go even better,” Crowe added.
Several opportunities exist to increase its growth, he affirmed. “There’s two or three opportunities that I would see for Shannon. One is the whole continental hub connectivity, it is something we desperately need, since the advent of Brexit, the Heathrow slot is all important in Shannon but we shouldn’t just depend on that alone, we need connectivity to Amsterdam or Frankfurt, I would love to see more development of transatlantic routes. I think there’s huge cargo prospects for Shannon, only one percent of cargo leaving Ireland does so via air, I think Shannon is the ideal airport where unlike Dublin or Heathrow you have a flight taking off every minute, there are time gaps in Shannon which would allow large freight companies to touch down in Shannon, offload their cargo and have it transferred onto road freight.
“There’s so many new aviation opportunities for Shannon, I’m particularly interested in drone technology, I know Shannon has been a testing bed for possibilities there, in the next few years I’m aware of a company that will partner with the HSE in terms of delivering critical medical supplies, that’s a pipeline project, I’m aware of other companies that will partner up with FedEx and cargo distribution companies, I think Shannon has a huge role for that, the whole role for sustainable fuels, I think Shannon can be leading the way like it did for many years, it can pioneer like it has in other areas. I’ve been working a lot in the background and hopefully I will have good announcements on those fronts in the coming months,” he continued.
A cargo hub has previously been mooted by Deputy Crowe but progress is not visible. “I think Shannon has even more to offer because when you bring high value cargo products into the likes of Dublin there’s fantastic handling facilities but straight away after leaving the airport complex you’re into huge traffic congestion, there’s a lot of merit to the likes of Shannon being the receiving point for cargo and very quickly getting it to the motorway network, we have plans for a rail spur, I’ve met with Irish Rail and they have advanced plans for the development of their cargo and freight capacity so all of this will not happen overnight, we have to have a bigger vision for Shannon than just trying to lure different airlines to fly out over the summer months, we have to have a bigger picture view, I have Brendan O’Regan’s book in my office in Dublin, I have a scrap book of some of his old contributions to Shannon, people often say who do you look up to politically, of course I look up to the likes of Padraig Pearse and Eamon de Valera but Brendan O’Regan was a political figure that I look up to, he had visions for Clare that focused on aviation and tourism but like tentacles on an octopus his projects reached out to all corners of the county, in some small way he is someone I try to emulate politically”.
With the ideas outlined, does he have the faith in the management and board of the Shannon Airport Group to deliver is the question posed by The Clare Echo. “I do have faith in the management and the board but I will unapologetically hold them to account, it’s a semi-state body, they are answerable to the taxpayer and to the House of the Oireachtas, I maintain a lot of contact with Mary Considine and her management team, I’ve faith in them, I think they have brought the Airport back to a good place, there are times when you would constructively criticise the airport but it is always constructive criticism, it’s in everyone’s interest that the airport is properly run and I think when we do see the Shannon Heritage portfolio leave the Shannon Group it will allow the airport to better focus itself on things aviation again”.
In three years as a TD he has mentioned Shannon Airport an approximate 380 times in the Dáil. What are the positive outcomes that have resulted from these contributions. “I’m not going to pretend that the 380 times resulted in 380 outcomes. Shannon was disproportionally affected by COVID more than any other Irish airport, I wanted it to be in a position to recover quicker from COVID which meant enticing new airlines in, it also meant securing more Government funding to stabilise the Airport through the COVID period and allow it to rebuild, it’s now upgraded its baggage facilities and security screening facilities which are cutting edge and the envy of Europe. In Shannon we have a security system that perfectly aligns with US and EU requirements, it is absolutely unique in Europe and a selling point we’ve come out of COVID with. We’ve a restoration of transatlantic services going on, in more recent months I made a submission to the Shannon Estuary Taskforce that the fuel farm developed in Shannon Airport by Russians and Aeroflot in the 1960s would become a storage point for sustainable aviation fuels, that proposal that I put into Government is being acted on and I think there’s a major massive role for Shannon in that going forward”.
