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Aer Lingus leaving Shannon
Read more about: End of Shannon-Heathrow, Transport 
Without doubt someone some where more then likely here will say that the reason that Aer Lingus is leaving Shannon is because of privatization of the airline. And indeed that is the case. The reason that Aer Lingus is leaving Shannon is because Shannon is a Airport outside a city with a population of 80,000 compared to Belfast with a population of 500,000. Ryanair already flies 4 times a day to London everyday (One to Gatwick, three to Stanstead). So who loses out with these flights going?
Well there is already 4 flights a day to London and the time taken to get to London City centre from Gatwick in my experience is the same as from Heathrow. Also I have always founded Gatwick a faster airport to get through then Heathrow. So if London is still going to be served from Shannon then what is going to be effected is the through traffic in Heatrow. Which is basically the business community. So pre-privatisation these flights would have been saved because the government would have subsides these rich business men and women convenience. Is that what government should be doing?
I think part of the distortion is caused by slots at Heathrow. They are valuable and Aer Lingus only has a few of them. So the question is not just whether flights from Shannon are profitable but whether Belfast is a better use of those slots. For exactly the reasons you give, Aer Lingus has decided that they are. But with more liberal access to Heathrow slots, it’s likely some airline could run a profitable flight to Heathrow from Shannon.
One other thing. It’s always odd to see FF TDs getting top billing in criticising outcomes which flow from policy decisions from the government of which they are a part. Tony Killeen being given the ball by RTE in this story.
That is why Fianna Fail win
Simon, it isn’t just the business community that will need to go through Heathrow to fly to the US when direct flights also are dropped under open skies.
If you think Gatwick to London is as fast as Heathrow to London you have never heard of the Heathrow Express: every fifteen minutes, takes fifteen minutes to Paddington. Gatwick trains are half hourly, take longer and run into Waterloo on the wrong side of the river.
I was on the Heathrow-Shannon plane on Wednesday morning and it was 75% full, weekends you cant get on them. So WHY is Ireland’s national carrier giving its valuable Heathrow slots to link 2 UK airports? They might as well paint the planes red white and blue while they are at it.
Question is, why did Aer Lingus decide this. When was it first discussed at a board meeting? When was the government first informed?
Gatwick Express runs every 15 minutes into Victoria. Which is nearer to the heart of London then Paddington is.
60,000 North American originating passengers transited through Heathrow to Shannon last year.
With open skies and the loss of some (and maybe soon, all) transatlantic flights from Shannon, the Heathrow slots are needed even more.
Heathrow is vital for connectivity for business and tourists travelling to the rest of europe and the world. Gatwick is a poor cousin. Stansted is worse. There is only one flight per day to Gatwick from Shannon. It arrives at 2.30pm and is operated by Ryanair.
Tens of Thousands of jobs depend on Shannon Airport. This loss is much worse than open skies and will be fought tooth and nail.
The sad part is that Shannon is better off without Aer Lingus – the last time I flew the airline a fellow traveler in my group was refused a cup of coffee mid-flight because she made the request outside of scheduled mealtimes! Make the same request on Delta, Continental, or US Airways flights and your request will be granted.
I’m flying family from Shannon to Baltimore (via Philadelphia) in May and every other airline offered a better dead from Shannon than Aer Lingus – they were charging almost $1000 to fly Dublin-Dulles. Of the 3 Washington DC-area airports, Dulles is the most inconvenient, as it is located to the west of DC in a rural part of Virginia. I’ve flown Aer Lingus over the years and the transition to “low fares” was one of the worse moves they’ve ever made – and after that last experience I will never fly them again. It’s obvious that Aer Lingus will pull out of Shannon eventually – Shannon should be proactive and kick ‘em out first and get it over with