*CEO of The Shannon Airport Group, Mary Considine. Photograph: Joe Buckley
CREATING a unique selling point (USP) for Shannon Airport was among the main focuses of a strategy devised by management during the pandemic.
Shannon Airport has enjoyed a post-pandemic bounce with Ryanair announcing plans for its biggest ever summer schedule next year, the addition of a third Shannon-based aircraft, a €10m heavy maintenance facility and the most recent lift with United Airlines confirming the return of a daily service to Chicago.
Earlier this year, Shannon Airport lifted the 100ml restriction on liquids that are taken on board flights. The restriction on liquids of more than 100ml no longer applies for outbound passengers at Shannon Airport, and passengers can travel with larger quantities of liquids as long as they fit into a cabin bag.
It was part of a €2.5m investment in security screening which also eliminates the need to remove laptops from bags.
At present, Shannon is still only operating at around a third of its capacity, it’s expected that it will be 2024 before the full complement of US services return.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, CEO of The Shannon Airport Group, Mary Considine explained that this was all part of efforts to make it a more enticing place to fly to and from. “It was a very difficult period as you know,” she said of the pandemic. “We decided to use the time wisely to invest for the future because none of us knew how long it would continue, it was about making that investment to upgrade our critical airport infrastructure and look at what would make it easier for our passengers to get through.
“We wanted to have a USP (unique selling point) when we reopened and the investment we made in baggage screening but importantly in the security screening equipment upstairs has meant it’s much easier for passengers to get through the Airport, they no longer have to remove liquids and gels from their cabin baggage, there’s no 100ml on the liquids going through and they don’t need to take out electronic devices, what that means is they get through security much quicker and easier”.
She continued, “Similarly we do combined screening at central search so for passengers going to the US, they don’t need to go through a secondary security check which is a cost to the airline and an inconvenience to the passenger, all of that is removed in Shannon by the measures we’ve implemented. We’ve continued investment right across the campus, not only in the Airport but our property portfolio, all of that is generating more economic activity in Shannon but also in the broader region we’ve seen the spin off from that”.
An incentive scheme agreed with Shannon Airport has regularly been cited by Ryanair management as a big influence when it comes to adding more routes. It’s part of the armoury used by The Shannon Airport Group to grow its offering, Mary commented. “We’re competing internationally to win airlines and win routes into the west of Ireland, we need to be very competitive, we need to have a very compelling offer and I think we have both of those. We’ve offered very attractive incentive schemes to our carriers to encourage additional capacity and bring in new routes, we’ve worked to streamline our own cost base to make sure we’re efficient and we’ve invested to make sure the infrastructure is best in class. It’s a combination of all things but it’s a very competitive market place and we need to be out there constantly competing for new business”.
On the impact of the extra Ryanair aircraft, Mary stated, “When they base extra aircraft here it’s the opportunity to put more routes in and more capacity, for next summer Ryanair have announced that they will be operating 24 routes from Shannon, that includes two new routes to Newcastle and Béziers in France, they are a very important airline partner for us and we’re delighted to have worked with them to achieve this additional investment for Shannon”.
“A new aircraft based in Shannon means additional direct jobs for the Ryanair crew in Shannon but all the indirect jobs for the service providers and importantly all the passengers that are brought in and out of Shannon contribute to the economy in the broader region, that is very important, that is on top of the investment that Ryanair made in Shannon earlier this year by taking on hangar five from us, that’s one of ten hangars that we have here on our campus in Shannon, it’s a significant investment and the creation of highly skilled jobs in that heavy based maintenance hangar”.
At the end of March, founder and chair of Fibrus, Conal Henry was announced as the Chairman of the Shannon Airport Group. He was also Commercial Director at Ryanair, spending two years working under Michael O’Leary during this time the company grew from handling 6.5 million passengers, to 22 million.
When asked if Conal’s addition has been a key factor in strengthening the links between Shannon Airport and Ryanair, Mary said, “We’ve a very good relationship with Ryanair, they’re here 35 years, we were the first Airport to announce a deal with them post-pandemic as things started to open up in July 2021, Ryanair came down in August and announced a second based unit, we’ve a really positive relationship and we’ve continued to build and work on that with them. We’ve a very strong Board under the Chairmanship of Conal Henry, they are a huge support to the management team here, we work very closely with our Board, that relationship is very important. We had a strong Board and it’s about the dynamic with a commercial focus and everybody working together, that is the most critical thing”.
Tourism Ireland’s $1m campaign in the United States is pushing Shannon Airport as the gateway to The Wild Atlantic Way has been “very helpful,” she admitted. “It’s very important because it’s a very strong brand in the US and that is a really strong market for Shannon, we’ve seen a very strong bounce back on our transatlantic traffic this summer and it was about building on that and supporting our carriers for the winter period as they prepare and plan for capacity into 2023, we’re very appreciative of the support we get from Tourism Ireland and indeed the actual event in both New York and Boston brought all the corporate, airline and trade partners together under one roof, it’s really important for us to be able to have access to those meetings”.
A redrawing of the National Aviation Policy represents a chance for further growth at Shannon Airport with Dublin Airport currently consuming 87 percent of the aviation traffic in the country. “If you look at Ireland, we are an outlier, it’s about balancing the landscape, it’s not just about aviation it’s the economy activity associated with aviation. There is an opportunity if you look at this year and I think people are using the regional airports, particularly Shannon, and they may not have thought about coming to Shannon prior to this year, there is an opportunity now. I know Government and our own Department officials are looking at bringing forward a review of aviation policy, there is an opportunity to look at what’s on offer and the infrastructure in place around the rest of the country and really look to balance things”.
