Shannon’s summer schedule gets off to a good start

The clocks going forward on 29th March marked the official start of Summer time but it also marked the start of Shannon’s 2015 summer schedule which extends at this time of year to include scheduled flights to Alicante, Chicago, Faro, Malaga, Munich, New York, Nice, Palma, Philadelphia, Poitiers, Tenerife & Zurich. These are in addition to year round routes which continue and service Berlin, Boston, Fuerteventura, Kaunas, Krakow, Gatwick, Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, Newark, Paris, Warsaw and Wroclaw. A large number of destinations are also served by chartered flights by operators such as Concorde Travel, Croatia.ie, Falcon Holidays, Joe Walsh Tours, Sunway and Travel Choice.

Airlines involved in the summer schedule are Aer Lingus, Aer Lingus Regional/ Stobart Air, American Airlines, Delta, Helvetic Airways, Ryanair and United Airlines with some additions to be used for some of the Charter operations. 

The latest schedule addition is a six times a week Aer Lingus Regional service to Birmingham, operated by Stobart Air, using ATR72 aircraft, from 15th June. The EI3638/9 operates daily except Saturdays, departing Birmingham at 16:55 arriving Shannon at 18:35. It departs again at 19:00 arriving Birmingham at 20:35. The route is expected to provide an additional 45,000 seats this summer. On the charter front Sunway Holidays will put on a Saturday service to Izmir from 23rd May to 19th September, which is expected to carry up to 6,000 additional passengers from Shannon.

The new summer schedule is expected to boost traffic at Shannon, which grew its passenger numbers by 17% in 2014, and is looking for further increases this year. 2014 saw passenger numbers increasing from 1,400,032 to 1,639,315. The growth was achieved on the back of ten new destinations and 16 service enhancements overall in 2014. The biggest growth market was in European services, where nine new destinations delivered a 70% increase (from 251,813 to 427,887). While these included a number of popular sun destinations which return for 2015, growth on European services also drew high numbers of inbound visitors, thanks to the return of links to Germany (Munich and Berlin) as well new French (Paris and Poitiers) services – markets with traditionally a strong demand.

There was also strong growth (10%) across the airport’s five US services (Boston, Chicago, Newark, JFK New York and Philadelphia); building on the increase achieved in the second half of 2013 when the airport enjoyed a 22% uplift in transatlantic passengers. Shannon’s largest overall market, the UK, continued to recover, achieving a 5% increase in 2014. The year finished on another monthly high in December with a 7% increase on passenger numbers compared with December 2013. This included a 165% increase on European services. The trend so far this year is good with 167,768 passengers in the first two months of the year, 87,267 in January and 80,501 in February both significantly better than the 67,967 carried in each of the same months in 2015.

In another important development for the airport on 5th March Turkish Airlines commenced a twice-weekly freighter service routing Istanbul-Shannon-Chicago. The service is scheduled to be operated by Airbus A330-243(F)s, and TC-JCI, one of the six in the fleet, operated the inaugural service. The aircraft was welcomed to the airport by air traffic controllers with a “Céad Míle Fáilte” to which the captain, Kevin Byrne replied “Go Raibh Maith Agat”. The new service will enjoy round the clock services at Shannon. Turkish Airlines opened its new Cargo Terminal on 1st January. The 71.000 m² facility with closed warehouse area of 43.000 m² vastly improves the handling and transfer of cargo. Turkish Cargo provides the most efficient connections to the leading production and commercial centres across the globe with a network of more than 260 destinations in 108 countries.

Shannon Airport is set to enhance its passenger experience further with a collection of memorabilia for the public to view while waiting for flights to depart. Located in the transit lounge, near the Sheridan Food Bar, the collection is one of the initiatives to mark the 70th anniversary later this year of the first commercial flight to land at Shannon. It will be the first step towards developing a wider celebration of Ireland’s most historic airport.

Among the items in the collection, which is already underway and open for viewing, will be various guest visitors’ books signed by global leaders and other VIPs that flew in and out of Shannon over the decades. It will also include an array of model aircraft, including those from the early days of commercial aviation when Shannon was the first European gateway to the US.

The collection will also include photographs and video footage taken of some of the world’s most famous people over the last century as they flew in and out of Shannon, among them stars of silver screen including Gene Kelly, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope and some of the world’s best known political and religious leaders. The items will be drawn from the airport’s own archive collection, while members of the public, including former staff and their families who may also have suitable items for inclusion in the gallery, are being invited to donate/loan them to the gallery.

Anyone with items – such as photographs, autographs, collectors’ souvenirs purchased at the airport, posters, etc. – they wish to have housed in the collection can contact: Dorothy Quinn, Terminal Operations, Shannon Airport. Tel. 061 712218 or email: dorothy.quinn@shannonairport.ie.

To help passengers to finalise their holiday plans (or just for the spotters), Shannon Airport has put together a handy ‘flight by day’ schedule.

Summer 2015 Direct Flights by day

The table below lists the range of direct flights available to and from Shannon for summer 2015 by day. You can also download Shannon’s summer 2015 Timetable here.