A Limerick business group has called for an “urgent review” of policy at the failing Shannon Airport to ensure strategies are put in place to rapidly grow traffic and restore its market share.
The Limerick Chamber claimed Friday that figures released in the Annual Report of DAA for 2010 confirm a collapse in passenger traffic at Shannon Airport, with overall year-on-year traffic down 37 percent to 1.75 million and European traffic down 64 percent from 888,946 to 323,358.
Shannon’s market share at 7.8% of passengers through the three state airports is now at its lowest level in history with no sign of recovery on the horizon.
“Over the past three years traffic at Shannon has fallen 50 percent from a high of 3.6 million passengers to 1.75 million passengers in 2010. No financial figures were released for the individual airports but it is reasonable to assume that the collapse in traffic will have resulted in a significant increase in losses at Shannon Airport,” Limerick Chamber Aviation spokesperson Tadhg Kearney said Friday.
He says the decision by DAA in 2009 to increase airport charges at Shannon has resulted in a major downsizing by Ryanair, a halving of passenger numbers, a significant reduction in number of destinations serviced and an undisclosed increase in financial losses.
Market share loss at the airport is particularly noticeable in the transatlantic market where Shannon’s market share has fallen from 41 percent in 2000 to 19 percent in 2010.
The Chamber is calling for the current failed policy at Shannon, but dictated by DAA, to be abandoned.

A woman has been rescued from the river Shannon after she got into difficulty in the water Friday afternoon.
Irish presidential candidate David Norris will be coming to Limerick city and county this Friday and Saturday to continue his 

