Shannon Airport Thread [Mod Warning in First Post]

Brennans Row

UL aims to increase international profile (Live95fm)

The University of Limerick is planning on increasing its profile internationally.

Discussions are underway for the next strategic plan for the institution which will include ways to attract more international fee-paying students to Limerick.

An increase in research funding will also be important to increase the profile of the university.

Research was one of the cornerstones in why UL was chosen as Sunday Times University of the Year for 2015.

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I would imagine that many international students would arrive via Heathrow?

Brennans Row

AMAX Further Expands Global Manufacturing and Logistics Footprint to Better Serve EMEA and Worldwide Customers. (AMAX)

AMAX, a leading manufacturer of dynamic Data Center & Cloud, custom Server Appliance and High Performance Computing (HPC) solutions, today announced the grand opening of its European manufacturing facility at Western Business Park in Shannon, Ireland.

The AMAX Ireland location will serve as the European manufacturing facility for AMAX's x86-based server and rack solutions as well as a logistics hub, joining AMAX's headquarters in Fremont, CA in the U.S. as well as its multiple China facilities to create a comprehensive global footprint.

The facility will provide a hundred jobs over the next five years in production, warehousing, finance and sales in the local community.

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I wonder did Shannon’s air freight connectivity play a key role in them locating their European manufacturing headquarters here?

JCX BXC

Brennans Row wrote: »

UL aims to increase international profile (Live95fm)

The University of Limerick is planning on increasing its profile internationally.

Discussions are underway for the next strategic plan for the institution which will include ways to attract more international fee-paying students to Limerick.

An increase in research funding will also be important to increase the profile of the university.

Research was one of the cornerstones in why UL was chosen as Sunday Times University of the Year for 2015.

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I would imagine that many international students would arrive via Heathrow?

Probably, some Via the US routes are possible too.

cnoc

Brennans Row wrote: »

AMAX Further Expands Global Manufacturing and Logistics Footprint to Better Serve EMEA and Worldwide Customers. (AMAX)

AMAX, a leading manufacturer of dynamic Data Center & Cloud, custom Server Appliance and High Performance Computing (HPC) solutions, today announced the grand opening of its European manufacturing facility at Western Business Park in Shannon, Ireland.

The AMAX Ireland location will serve as the European manufacturing facility for AMAX's x86-based server and rack solutions as well as a logistics hub, joining AMAX's headquarters in Fremont, CA in the U.S. as well as its multiple China facilities to create a comprehensive global footprint.

The facility will provide a hundred jobs over the next five years in production, warehousing, finance and sales in the local community.

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I wonder did Shannon’s air freight connectivity play a key role in them locating their European manufacturing headquarters here?

Is this the company that it was announced on the news last week that 500 jobs would be coming to Shannon?

Brennans Row

cnoc wrote: »

Is this the company that it was announced on the news last week that 500 jobs would be coming to Shannon?

The Clare Champion mentioned that last week, where we can expect a major jobs announcement in Shannon within the next twelve weeks (500-700 jobs).

It hinted in the article that this particular company has been based in Shannon for a number of years, so the AMAX announcement from yesterday would therefore be a separate one.

JCX BXC

500-700 jobs is a Significant number of jobs. A job announcement such as that will bring great development and employment to the region. 500 jobs is roughly 5% the population of Shannon. Such a high amount of jobs would result in further jobs as these employees will spend their money in the area. I'm sure most people here know that though.

Something good for an econmically depressed mid-west region. I'm sure when that announcement the government will never stop shouting about it.

Cookiemunster

Carnacalla wrote: »

500-700 jobs is a Significant number of jobs. A job announcement such as that will bring great development and employment to the region. 500 jobs is roughly 5% the population of Shannon. Such a high amount of jobs would result in further jobs as these employees will spend their money in the area. I'm sure most people here know that though.

Judging from the different companies I've worked for in Shannon over the years I'd say the majority of people working there are from Limerick or Ennis rather than Shannon town. While a lot of people from Shannon would be employed I'd guess that the majority of people would again be from outside the town.

JCX BXC

Cookiemunster wrote: »

Judging from the different companies I've worked for in Shannon over the years I'd say the majority of people working there are from Limerick or Ennis rather than Shannon town. While a lot of people from Shannon would be employed I'd guess that the majority of people would again be from outside the town.

I realised that, so I said area. Shannon will supply a few workers but alot will come from Ennis and Limerick and in-between.

Davys Fits

I think the jobs expected by the Clare Champion ended up in Galway with the Zimmer expansion, not in Shannon.

Brennans Row

The Princeton University Orchestra will arrive in Shannon from Newark on Saturday for a short Irish tour (University of Limerick Concert Hall, Dublin and Belfast).

Nice to see cultural events adding some transatlantic traffic at this time of the year.

Vanhalla

What happened to Shannon - Edinburgh route?

JCX BXC

Vanhalla wrote: »

What happened to Shannon - Edinburgh route?

Aer Lingus regional dropped the route about 2-3 weeks ago as part of their base closure and no airline has taken the route yet.

JCX BXC

No Boston flight today either! When did Aer Lingus decide to drop it to 4pw?

Brennans Row

Ryanair considers route-sharing with longhaul carriers (Irish Independent)

I wonder could the Shannon Airport Authority work out a schedule (deal) with Ryanair to feed its transatlantic routes?

maryb26

Prior to Christmas there was some speculation that Ryanair would be announcing new routes for the summer. Does anyone have idea if that will be the case or when an announcement may be made. Thanks in advance.

JCX BXC

maryb26 wrote: »

Prior to Christmas there was some speculation that Ryanair would be announcing new routes for the summer. Does anyone have idea if that will be the case or when an announcement may be made. Thanks in advance.

Ryanair have said that they will base a third aircraft in Shannon from September 2015, and that new routes will be announced then. At least one of these routes will be to a base Ryanair has opened in the past year or so. Birmingham, a scottish route and maybe bristol will probably be added then too.

JCX BXC

Shannon (And Belfast) have been removed off the Germanwings Website.
Its a pity, Im sure a cologne route would have done well.

Brennans Row

Apparently, 1,700 corporate jets are expected to fly people to the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland.

I wonder how many of those returning to America will avail of Shannon’s US Preclearance for Private Aircraft?

Brennans Row

Jet diverts with ill passenger (Clare Herald)

A holiday jet diverted to Shannon with an ill passenger this afternoon while a replacement aircraft had to be flown in to complete the flight.

Jet2.com flight LS223 was travelling from Leeds in England to Tenerife South in the Canary Islands when the crew declared a medical emergency.

The flight had departed Leeds at 10.05am and was over an hour into it’s flight when the drama began.

At the time, the flight was over the Celtic Sea about 400 kilometres south of Ireland when the pilot opted to turn around and divert to Shannon.

At 2.35pm, a replacement aircraft arrived from Leeds to take the passengers onto their destination.

That flight departed at 4.07pm almost five hours after the original plane diverted to Shannon.

The jet that diverted to Shannon returned to Leeds shortly before 5.00pm.

Comhrá

At 2.35pm, a replacement aircraft arrived from Leeds to take the passengers onto their destination.

Anyone guess as to why the original aircraft couldn't resume the journey to Ten. S?

JCX BXC

tippman1 wrote: »

Anyone guess as to why the original aircraft couldn't resume the journey to Ten. S?

Possible damage due to overweight landing?

highlydebased

Crew probably would've gone out of hours if they continued. So new aircraft and crew I'd say

Growler!!!

To add, the aircraft was no doubt returned to base to do whatever flight the replacement aircraft was meant to do.

Brennans Row

Aircraft lessor Aercap moves €39bn in assets to Republic (Irish Times)

The aircraft finance giant formed last year by the $7 billion takeover of International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) by Irish-based Aercap has moved the bulk of its near €40 billion in assets to the Republic, according to its chief executive, Aengus Kelly.

Aercap agreed to buy ILFC from US insurer AIG in late 2013 in a $7 billion cash and shares deal to form the world’s biggest aircraft leasing company, which had a fleet of 1,130 planes and another 391 on order at the end of last September.

The company has moved its commercial base to the Republic, where it has offices in Dublin and Shannon, which means that it has shifted ownership of the bulk of its €39.1 million in assets here.

While it was waiting for the regulators, Aercap got on with bringing the two companies together, such as merging IT systems, human resources departments and transferring its assets.

Establishing its commercial operations in Shannon meant bringing 40 families from LA to set up home in the Co Clare town. Mr Kelly points out that the executives and staff who moved here would not have come if the special 35 per cent tax rate for ex-pats had not been available.

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These people fly worldwide and without a Heathrow Connection, Aercap will eventually move to Dublin.

JCX BXC

I emailed the Minister for transport office 10 days ago on the 16th of January regarding the Heathrow slots in Shannon. I got this in reply today.

Dear ********,

I wish to acknowledge receipt of your email regarding flights from Shannon to Heathrow, the contents of which have been noted.
The issue you raise was discussed in Dáil Eireann on 20 January - please see link below :

http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/debateswebpack.nsf/takes/dail2015012000043?opendocument

Yours sincerely,

*******************,
Aviation Services Division.
Department of Transport,Tourism and Sport.

It was more or less useless response, as I had well heard of these proceedings in the dail considering they took place six days ago. I recommend anyone here who has not seen these proceedings to take alot though, it provides insight into how the issue was raised and how little Pascal Donohoe will do. (The heathrow slots issue runs from the middle of page 43 to p45.)

In these proceedings I noticed the emphasis placed on Shannon in comparison to cork. It shows the strong voices of the Mid-West.

Whatever happens, we need to guarentee these Heathrow slots. It may be a bit selfish, but these slots are vital to the survival of Shannon Airport and the economy to the surrounding areas as the Heathrow slots are a strong incentive for business' to locate here as they have good connectivity to Europe and Beyond.

If EI do cancel their T/A services from Shannon, its not the end of the world. The U.S carriers would probably fill the gap.

Brennans Row

Challenged by loss of valuable route in 2008 – Genworth (Clare Champion)

THIS time seven years ago, Genworth was starting to get to grips with the reality of Shannon having lost its link to Heathrow.

While the link was restored again in 2009, Bob Brannock, president, International Protection with the company, said it had been very challenging.

“It would have had a huge effect on us because we deliberately headquartered our business in a place called Chiswick in the UK, which is quite close to Heathrow.

“At the time, because it happened so suddenly, it caused a lot of issues. The other thing is that our business centre in Shannon services 24 countries worldwide. What we needed was a link into Heathrow to allow our guys to get to the other places they needed to go. In any week, we’d have guys heading for Asia, heading for Latin America, different countries across Europe and we simply couldn’t get them out.”

He said that, at the time, it “stopped us in our tracks in terms of growth at Shannon” and militated against bringing more business activities back to Clare.

The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, opened their state-of-the-art new premises late last year and he feels companies would be less inclined to make major investments locally, without the Heathrow service.

“We’ve just opened our new servicing centre in Shannon and I think it would have a huge impact on anyone else thinking of coming in and doing something like what we’ve done. Without that ability to get in and out of the centre, it makes no sense to have it there,” Mr Brannock said.

While he admits to being somewhat uneasy about the current situation with the Heathrow slots, he does believe they will remain because of the level of business on them.

“I fly in and out of Shannon a lot and those flights are pretty full all the time. I’m not sure that whoever takes it over wouldn’t see it as a valuable route,” he concluded.

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Takeover may end Cork and Shannon routes (Irish Examiner)

The profitability of routes from Cork and Shannon airports to Heathrow is not strong enough at present to ensure their survival in the medium to long term, it has been claimed by Merrion Stockbrokers head of research David Holohan.

Mr Holohan said that while it’s too early to predict which routes could be affected by any takeover, the outlook for Cork and Shannon airports is more challenging than the situation faced by Dublin, and added that routes from the regional bases would need to become more profitable to ensure their future viability.

“I think the case for [Cork and Shannon airports] going forward is more challenging and I think it would be dependent on what IAG believe they can grow to and how they would go about growing passenger numbers… but ultimately for IAG [the routes] would need to become more profitable going forward, I would imagine, than they currently are.

“I think it’s too early to decide what routes would be changed or left unaltered but clearly going forward, IAG is going to want to maximise profits on all routes so that would entail leaving the existing routes in place for the foreseeable future but in the medium term obviously they would want to earn an economic return from all routes,” Mr Holohan said.

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Keeping Heathrow slots 'crucial to regional cities' (Irish independent)

BUSINESS leaders in the south, west and mid-west have warned that any Aer Lingus sale must be conditional on critical Heathrow landing slots being ring-fenced for services to regional Irish cities.

Cork Chamber of Commerce chief executive Conor Healy warned that maintaining the Cork-Heathrow link was "vital" for both the airport and the south-west region.

"The Heathrow service is an absolutely vital service for Cork business and it must be maintained," he said.

His comments were echoed by Ennis, Galway, Limerick and Shannon Chambers, which claimed the potential loss of the slots was at odds with the Government's aims to correct regional imbalance.

Galway Chamber president, Frank Greene said: "There is significant foreign direct investment in the Galway, Shannon and Limerick areas and it's very important to have that link to Heathrow. Without it, we've got a major problem."

cnoc

Brennans Row wrote: »

Challenged by loss of valuable route in 2008 – Genworth (Clare Champion)

THIS time seven years ago, Genworth was starting to get to grips with the reality of Shannon having lost its link to Heathrow.

While the link was restored again in 2009, Bob Brannock, president, International Protection with the company, said it had been very challenging.

“It would have had a huge effect on us because we deliberately headquartered our business in a place called Chiswick in the UK, which is quite close to Heathrow.

“At the time, because it happened so suddenly, it caused a lot of issues. The other thing is that our business centre in Shannon services 24 countries worldwide. What we needed was a link into Heathrow to allow our guys to get to the other places they needed to go. In any week, we’d have guys heading for Asia, heading for Latin America, different countries across Europe and we simply couldn’t get them out.”

He said that, at the time, it “stopped us in our tracks in terms of growth at Shannon” and militated against bringing more business activities back to Clare.

The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, opened their state-of-the-art new premises late last year and he feels companies would be less inclined to make major investments locally, without the Heathrow service.

“We’ve just opened our new servicing centre in Shannon and I think it would have a huge impact on anyone else thinking of coming in and doing something like what we’ve done. Without that ability to get in and out of the centre, it makes no sense to have it there,” Mr Brannock said.

While he admits to being somewhat uneasy about the current situation with the Heathrow slots, he does believe they will remain because of the level of business on them.

“I fly in and out of Shannon a lot and those flights are pretty full all the time. I’m not sure that whoever takes it over wouldn’t see it as a valuable route,” he concluded

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Genworth made employees redundant some time after this opening!

Brennans Row

cnoc wrote: »

Genworth made employees redundant some time after this opening!

I did not know that.

Do you know how many jobs were lost and why?

Their press release states that 400 employees moved into the new state of the art business centre which was officially opened by the Taoiseach at end of November.

cnoc

Brennans Row wrote: »

I did not know that.

Do you know how many jobs were lost and why?

Their press release states that 400 employees moved into the new state of the art business centre which was officially opened by the Taoiseach at end of November.

I do not know how many employees lost their jobs. I believe the reason was because Genworth lost one of their contracts, on the medical insurance side.

Brennans Row

Element Six boss fears for investment if Heathrow link lost (Limerick Leader)

THE government must insist on legally watertight clauses around connections to Heathrow if it assents to any sale of its stake in Aer Lingus, according to a leading executive at Shannon-based multinational Element Six.

Ken Sullivan, who was in the vanguard of the campaign by regional business leaders to preserve the Heathrow slots in 2007, said the Mid-West was “every bit as dependent now on Shannon-Heathrow services as it was back in 2007”.

Mr Sullivan, meanwhile, said that if the government does sell, it must make it conditional on retaining connections between Heathrow and Shannon, Cork and Dublin.

“The Government, as a significant shareholder and in recognition of the threat this represents to the national interest, must reject any bid put to the board unless the contract of sale includes a clause that ensures existing services between the three Irish airports and Heathrow are protected. This must be the very minimum the Government insists on,” said Mr Sullivan, an executive director of the industrial diamond maker.

“As a company, Element Six is a regular user of the Shannon-Heathrow route. Shannon is the only airport on the entire western seaboard with access to Heathrow, which gives one-stop connectivity to so many key international markets.

“Not having this access is simply not an option for us. These services help underpin our presence in Shannon and any threat to them could be detrimental to this region’s ability to attract further foreign direct investment.”

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Retention of Heathrow slots essential – Shannon Group Chairman (Shannon Airport)

The Chairman of Shannon Group plc which operates Shannon Airport, has welcomed yesterday’s confirmation by Government that connectivity will be a key consideration in the proposed sale of Aer Lingus to IAG. Shannon Group Chairman Rose Hynes said the retention of Heathrow slots for Irish airports, including Shannon, must be a priority for Government as it contemplates the proposed IAG takeover of Aer Lingus. “Aer Lingus is a valued airline partner at Shannon, operating services to our key markets. Heathrow is the single most important gateway for business to and from key international markets for Ireland. It's essential that current slots and frequencies are retained and contractually protected for the individual Irish airports, including Shannon. I expect the long-term protection of each Irish airport’s Heathrow slots will be a key priority for government in its evaluation of this takeover bid."

Welcoming comments by Taoiseach Enda Kenny that, as guardians of the public interest, the Government has to take into account much wider considerations than the potential monetary value of its shareholding, she said this is further reassurance of the Government’s intention to put connectivity, competition and jobs centre stage as it weighs up the merits of the proposed sale. "Connectivity through the Heathrow slots is, quite simply, vital for industry and business for the country as a whole, but particularly so outside of Dublin," she added. "Which means it's vital for the economy, and for attracting inward investment and growing employment over the medium and long term. It's a factor we expect Government to judiciously measure when considering the more immediate financial gain to the state which the sale would represent."