Shannon Airport’s passenger numbers up 17pc in 2014

The airport said this growth was achieved on the back of 10 new destinations and 16 service enhancements overall in 2014.

The biggest growth market was in European services, where nine new destinations delivered a 70pc increase (from 251,813 to 427,887).  The airport said that these new services included a number of popular sun destinations, but the growth also came from high numbers of inbound visitors as a result of the return of links to Germany (Munich and Berlin) as well new French (Paris and Poitiers) services, markets with a traditionally strong demand for the West of Ireland tourism product.

There was also strong growth (10pc) across the airport’s five US services (Boston, Chicago, Newark, JFK New York and Philadelphia), following the second half of 2013’s 22pc increase in transatlantic passengers.

Shannon’s largest overall market, the UK, continued to recover, achieving a 5pc increase in 2014.

The year finished on a monthly high in December with a 7pc increase on passenger numbers compared with December 2013. This included a 165pc increase on European services.

“Our success, in just our first year as an independent entity, in ending five years of successive decline in passenger numbers in 2013 gave airlines the confidence to come in with a range of new services in 2014,” said Shannon Group CEO, Neil Pakey. “The market responded accordingly with passengers returning to Shannon as their airport of choice for access in and out of this region for both business and tourism.

“We remain focused on supporting our airlines by helping them to grow passenger numbers in 2015.  We accept that the market has the capacity to throw up challenges and, to that end, we are closely monitoring events around the potential acquisition of Aer Lingus and implications that may have on Heathrow slots.

“Our target was for double digit growth and getting that up to 17pc was very satisfying,” he said. “Having more people from our catchment choosing to fly from here has been the most pleasing aspect of all. A big difference also was the opportunity for Shannon to emerge as the key access point for air travel for the Wild Atlantic Way, which had a very successful launch year in 2014 and is set to be a hugely successful project for Irish tourism in the years ahead.”

“Shannon Airport, in providing daily access to the US, UK and Europe, is a key economic driver for a region that stretches from the south up to the north-west,” said Shannon Group chairman, Rose Hynes.  “Our passenger numbers in 2014 have had a direct material impact on this region’s economy with benefits for all our stakeholders.

“Now that we have built up strong momentum, we will use 2015 to further embed our new services and will continue to grow the overall passenger numbers.”