The Aer Lingus service between Shannon Airport and London Heathrow has come to an end after almost 60 years in service.
Aer Lingus decided last August to transfer its Heathrow slots to Belfast, from where a new daily service to London begins today. When the decision was made this caused quite an up roar in the mid west region of Ireland as hotels and other companies feared they would loose business and this then would lead to job cuts in the area. Also there is a fear that this would also lead to a decline in the number of people visiting the west of Ireland.
London Heathrow is one of the busiest airports in the world and this allowed more options for people to connect onto Shannon and also for people in the west wanting to travel out of Ireland.
Ryanair is currently the only operator operating flights to London Stansted, Luton and Gatwick from Shannon.
On a happy note for Shannon Airport CityJet and Air France have announced the commencement on February 4th next of a Shannon to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) which will serve as a major breakthrough for businesses and tourism across the West of Ireland. This new service will result in twice-daily services that will provide connectivity to 248 non-stop destinations from Paris Charles de Gaulle. This compares with the 169 destinations out of Heathrow. Furthermore, connectivity is also guaranteed to another 840 onward destinations through the Skyteam Alliance of which the Air France/KLM group is a member.
Shannon is in deep deep trouble. Watch as O’Leary starts to turn the screw over the coming months and years. With each turn he will extract another concession. In the end there will be nothing left except an empty blue shell. The people of the mid west have been duped by his BS over the last few months.
After Ryanair establish effective ownership of Shannon, you will see carrier after carrier abandon Shannon. It is already starting to happen. The big winner will be Dublin airport. Who owns Shannon airport? you may ask – it just happens to be the DAA.
This really is a shame. The Shannon estuary is where transatlantic aviation started from way back in the 1930’s.