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| Shannon Airport |
Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar, TD, has today said that he has been extremely encouraged by Shannon Airport’s start to life as an independent entity.
The airport currently has 50,700sq meters of space in nine hangars, all of which will be fully occupied following the signing of contracts with Air Contractors.
To meet a current request for near term additional hangar space, the board of the Shannon Group recently agreed to seek planning permission and to tender for the procurement and associated works of a fabric hangar of 4,300sq metres capable of accommodating wide-bodied aircraft.
It is anticipated the new hangar – intended to be the first of a number of new hangars developed at Shannon – will be built and open for business by the end of the year. The Airport has already had discussions with a number of interested parties in relation to the use of this new facility.
Air Contractors Director of Engineering Brendan Smyth said: “The hangar is an excellent facility that will support our new Boeing 757 services for Aer Lingus, and also our Boeing 737 and ATR services from Shannon for our customers including DHL and FedEx.
We have had a permanent presence in Shannon since 2004 and this move to our new hangar coupled with the trans-Atlantic operation for Aer Lingus strengthens our ties with the airport considerably.We have grown our presence and now have about 50 engineering and flight deck positions and we are also delighted to support other maintenance and engineering facilities in the airport.
The East Apron Hangar will play a key role in the future success of the B757 operations from Shannon as well as our summer charter passenger operations and our freight flying which is very important to business in the region.”
Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar, TD said “This is in keeping with the wider plans for growth at Shannon, including the development of an International Aviation Services Centre here to complement the existing cluster of 40 aviation related businesses operating in Shannon. The development of maintenance facilities is one opportunity identified under this plan and this is a very positive first step in that space.”
Shannon Group Chairman Rose Hynes said “This is the first of a projected series of additional hangers at Shannon which is being driven by ongoing third party demand. Our priority in 2013 was to stabilise the position at the airport, stem the five year decline in passenger numbers and increase connectivity. We are in passenger growth mode now and this will continue in 2014 and we will continue to make progress in the creation of an international aviation services centre in Shannon.”
Irish Aviation Research Institute © 13th February 2014 All Rights Reserved.
