Shannon Airport.html



Shannon International Airport (Irish: Aerfort na Sionainne) (IATA: SNN, ICAO: EINN), is one of Ireland's primary three airports (along with Dublin Airport and Cork Airport). It is the second busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland with 3.62 million passengers in 2007. The airport is located in Shannon, County Clare, around 24 km (15 mi) from Ennis and 25 km (16 mi) from Limerick City.

History

In the late 1930s, transatlantic air traffic was dominated by Flying Boats and a flying boat terminal was located at Foynes on the south side of the Shannon Estuary. However, it was realised that changing technology would require a runway and airport.

In 1936 the Irish Government confirmed that it would develop a 3.1 km² (760 acre) site at Rineanna for the country's first transatlantic airport. The land on which the airport was to be built was boggy, and on October 8, 1936 work began to drain the land. By 1942 a serviceable airport had been established and was named Shannon Airport. By 1945 the existing runways at Shannon were extended to allow transatlantic flights to land.

When World War II ended the airport was ready to be used by the many new post-war commercial airlines of Europe and North America. On September 16, 1945 the first transatlantic proving flight, a Pan Am DC-4, landed at Shannon from New York. On October 24, the first scheduled commercial flight, an American Overseas Airlines DC-4, passed through Shannon Airport.

The number of international carriers rose sharply in succeeding years as Shannon became well known as the gateway between Europe and the Americas. Limitation of aircraft range necessitated refuelling stops on many journeys. Shannon became the most convenient and obvious stopping point before and after the trip across the Atlantic.

In 1947 the Customs Free Airport Act established Shannon as the world's first Duty Free Airport. Shannon became a model for other Duty Free facilities throughout the world. That same year, the airport was finally completed.

In 1958, the Irish Airline Aer Lingus finally began transatlantic service to the United States. Using Lockheed Super Constellations for trice-weekly service to New York.

The 1960's proved to be a tough decade for Shannon Airport. With the introduction of new long range jet aircraft, transit traffic fell sharply as the need for planes crossing the Atlantic to re-fuel at Shannon became unnecessary.

In 1969 it was announced that a new government agency, Aer Rianta, would be given responsibility for Shannon Airport. Passenger numbers at the airport reached 460,000 that same year. With the increase in passengers and the introduction of the Boeing 747, it was decided that a new enlarged terminal would have to be built. The first commercial operation of a Boeing 747 took place in April 1971 while the new terminal officially opened in May of that year. In 1974, a major increase in fuel prices had a dramatic effect on transit traffic.

The 1980s saw a number of new airlines arrive at Shannon. Aer Rianta and the Soviet Airline, Aeroflot, had signed an agreement and by 1980 Aeroflot had established a fuel farm at Shannon.¹ The fuel farm was to hold Soviet fuel and soon Aerflot planes were stopping off at Shannon to fuel up to continue onto destinations in South, Central, and North America. The number of Aeroflot flights went from 240 aircraft in 1980, to 2000 aircraft by 1991.

During the 1990's the airport began to struggle. The bilateral agreement with the United States was renegotiated resulting in fewer planes required to stopover in Shannon (See Shannon Stopover below). In addition, with the demise of the Soviet Union, Aeroflot began to suffer which was a big loss to the airport. Aeroflot had brought 250,000 passengers a year through Shannon.²

Shannon began to rebound in the late 1990's with the success of the Irish economy, the improving situation in Northern Ireland, and an influx of American tourists. By the end of the decade Shannon had passengers numbers of 2.2 million and in the year 2000, a new £40 million terminal was opened.

Recent History

The new millennium brought new challenges to Shannon Airport. The September 11 attacks in New York and the downturn in aviation industry that followed, severely threatened the future of the airport. Airlines reduced their services while other airlines pulled out completely.

In 2004 the State Airports Act was passed. This renamed Aer Rianta as the Dublin Airport Authority, and established the Shannon Airport Authority and Cork Airport Authority. The three new authorities have the power to formulate business plans for their respective airports, however they will not take charge of running the airports until a yet to be determined date.

In August 2007, Aer Lingus announced that it was ending its 4 daily flights from Shannon to London Heathrow Airport. The airline now uses these Heathrow slots to serve its new hub at Belfast International Airport. It is hoped that a new CityJet route to Paris will offset the big lose of the Aer Lingus service.

For 2007, Shannon Airport had record passenger numbers of 3.6 million. International traffic was up 6%, while short haul flights were up 10%.³

In October 2008, as part of a multi-million euro cost-cutting plan, Aer Lingus announced it is to close its Shannon cabin crew base with a loss of 280 jobs. The airline will be redeploying an aircraft based at Shannon to Dublin in Summer 2009, leaving only one Aer Lingus Airbus A330 based at Shannon.⁴

Shannon Stopover

The first Air Services Agreement with the United States in 1945 only permitted flights to Shannon, and only permitted Irish airlines to serve Boston, Chicago and New York. In 1971, the US Civil Aeronautics Board announced that unless US planes were allowed to operate into Dublin Airport they proposed to ban Aer Lingus from landing in New York. Eventually an agreement was reached which allowed one US carrier, TWA, to service Dublin Airport through Shannon.

In 1990, the US-Ireland bilateral agreement was changed to allow Irish airlines to serve Los Angeles and additional US airlines to serve Dublin via Shannon. An amendment in 1993 allowed airlines to provide direct transatlantic services to Dublin but still 50% of transatlantic flights had to originate or stopover in Shannon.

In 2005, an agreement was reached regarding a transitional period. Beginning in November 2006 and ending in April 2008, the agreement eliminated restrictions on cargo services, for passenger service it reduced the stopover requirement and increased the number of US destinations Irish airlines could serve by three. At the end of this period, it was agreed that no restrictions would be placed on scheduled services between any airport in one country to any airport in the other.

In 2007, the European Union and USA announced that an agreement had been reached on an open skies aviation policy. The agreement came into effect from March 30th 2008. This effectively lead to the complete abolition of the Shannon Stopover, although this would have happened under the 2005 agreement anyway.

Military Stopover

Shannon Airport has a history of foreign military use. A large part of its business in recent years has been military stopovers, currently almost all American; however the airport was also frequently used by the Soviet military until the 1990's as Ireland, as a neutral country, was not a member of NATO. There were some restrictions, such as being unarmed, carry no arms, ammunition or explosives and that the flights in question do not form part of military exercises or operation. Shannon saw military transports throughout the Cold War and during the first Gulf War.

In the aftermath of the September 11th Attacks, the Irish government offered the use of Shannon to the American government. When the United States expanded the War On Terror from Afghanistan to Iraq in 2003, the government still allowed its use by American military. This caused much controversy and was the subject of protests and a challenge brought to the High Court⁵. In January 2003, a women took an axe to the nosecone and fuel lines of a US Navy jet, however a trial ended in her acquittal. In February 2003, a group know as the Pitstop Ploughshares damaged a United States Navy C-40 Clipper aircraft at the airport. They were tried three different times and ultimately ended up also being acquitted.

As of November 2008, approximately 1.2 million troops have passed through Shannon since the beginning of the Iraq War. This has generated significant revenue for the airport and has offset the loss of flights from the end of the Shannon "stopover" and the downturn in the aviation industry.⁶

Rendition Flights

On 6 December 2005, the BBC programme Newsnight alleged that Shannon was used on at least 33 occasions by United States Central Intelligence Agency flights, thought to be part of a US policy called extraordinary rendition. The New York Times reported the number to be 33, though referring to "Ireland" rather than Shannon, while Amnesty International has alleged the number of flights to be 50. The United States has denied these allegations.

Facilities

The current airport terminal was opened in the year 1999. This facility has 40 check-in desks, 5 baggage belts, 16 boarding gates and 9 air-bridges. There are nearly 40 aircraft parking stands. The car-parks can hold over 5000 cars.

U.S. Immigration & Customs Pre-clearance

In 1986 a US Immigration pre-clearance facility was opened at Shannon, eliminating the need to go through immigration on arrival in America. In November 2008, it was announced customs and agriculture inspections will be added. This will make Shannon the first airport in Europe to offer this service. This is expected to be a big incentive to attract airlines and corporate jets to Shannon. Shannon Airport is spending €20 million to have these facilites in place for Summer 2009.⁷

British Airways plans to offer a business class only flight from London City Airport to JFK Airport in New York with a stopover in Shannon once this service is in place. This will allow them to take off from the short runway of London City Airport which is located right in downtown London, stop for fuel in Shannon while passengers go through pre-clearance, and arrive in JFK without the need to go through immigration or customs.

Ground Transportation

Road

Shannon Airport is the end destination of the N19 national route, which connects to the N18 Limerick–Ennis–Galway route. A new dual-carriageway section of the N19 was finished in 2004, bypassing Shannon Town, and a new interchange and dual-carriageway north to Ennis were completed in 2007 on the N18.

Bus

Regular bus services connect the airport to Limerick, Ennis and Galway.

Airlines & Destinations

Scheduled passenger airlines

• Aer Lingus (Boston, Chicago-O'Hare^a, Dublin, New York-JFK) Focus city
• Air France
  • operated by CityJet (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Belavia (Minsk)
• Continental Airlines (Newark)
• Delta Air Lines (Atlanta [seasonal], New York-JFK)
• Ryanair (Alicante, Berlin-Schönefeld, Biarritz, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels-Charleroi, Carcassonne, Edinburgh, Faro, Frankfurt-Hahn, Fuerteventura, Girona, Gdansk, Glasgow-Prestwick, Katowice, Kaunas, Krakow, Leeds-Bradford, Liverpool, Lodz, London-Gatwick, London-Luton, London-Stansted, Málaga, Manchester, Milan-Bergamo, Murcia, Nantes, Newcastle, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Beauvais, Tenerife-South, Turin [begins 20 December] Venice-Treviso, Weeze, Wroclaw) Hub
• US Airways (Philadelphia) [seasonal]

Notes

• ^a Aer Lingus flights to/from Chicago stop in Dublin (until March 2009).

Charter passenger airlines

• Air Europa (Arrecife)
• Air Mediterranee (Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Paris CDG, Strasbourg, Toulouse)
• Air Transat (Toronto-Pearson) [seasonal]
• Dubrovnik Airline (Dubrovnik, Split)
• Iberworld (Arrecife, Bourgas, Faro, Ibiza, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Reus)
• Monarch Airlines (Faro)
• Onur Air (Bodrum, Izmir)
• Spanair (Palma)
• Swiss (Zurich)

Details correct as per 2008 Summer Schedule

Cargo airlines

• Air Contractors Ireland (Dublin, Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• DHL (East Midlands)
• TNT Airways (Stansted, Liège)
• UPS operated by Star Air Europe (Cologne/Bonn, Dublin)

Incidents & Accidents

• Due to the location of Shannon, it receives a large number of emergency stopovers.

On September 5, 1954, KLM Flight 633 from Amsterdam to New York, which was using Shannon as a refueling stop, crashed just after take-off into a mudbank just next to the airport. 28 people on board died.

On August 14, 1958, KLM Flight 607-E from Amsterdam to New York crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, after a refueling stop at Shannon.

Trivia

• On 27 September 2006, an Airbus A380 landed at Shannon as part of its testing prior to commercial launch, making Shannon one of the first airports in the world to have facilitated the aircraft.

• The airport was used as a training airfield for Concorde. The airport continues to be used regularly for training purposes by several airlines.

• The airport is listed as an emergency landing site for the NASA Space Shuttle.⁸

References

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