Shannon Airport is to lose one of its two remaining transatlantic services to New York's JFK Airport following a decision by Royal Jordanian to begin non-stop flights from Amman to the US.
The decision follows the purchase by the airline of two long-haul Airbus 340s, with a capacity of 254 passengers, on a lease-purchase deal with Airbus Industrie.
The ending of the service, due to take effect at the end of the summer, will result in the loss of up to three scheduled flights a week following its introduction last May.
It will mean that Aer Lingus is the only airline now flying from Shannon to JFK, following Delta's cancellation of its service last November in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks. Continental still provides a service to Newark, New Jersey.
Mr Martin Moroney, the airport manager, said international terminal traffic was up on last year, with an extra 6,000 seats being provided this summer.
Overall traffic was the same despite an 8 per cent loss having been predicted.
New services to begin next month include an Air Canada route to Toronto, a Royal Jordanian transit stop for Detroit and a daily service to Amsterdam provided by a new airline, Skynet. "Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport has been one of the top-priority route objectives for the last three years," Mr Moroney said.
Ms Susan Fitzpatrick, Royal Jordanian's passenger sales manager at Shannon, said the JFK service had been popular for Irish passengers particularly around St Patrick's Day. She said scheduled services to Chicago would continue, using the existing fleet of Airbus 310s which carry 203 passengers.
From this weekend the number of flights will be increased from two to three on that route for the summer season. The airline is also resuming weekly flights from Amman to Moscow, while its second Airbus 340 will be used for a non-stop Amman-Bangkok flight.
"They have always intended and indicated they would fly long haul when they acquired long-haul planes," Mr Moroney said.
Royal Jordanian chose Shannon over Amsterdam as its European base in 1998 and will resume cargo flights through the airport shortly. Mr Moroney added that the Shannon stop-over on the Chicago route had created a valuable link both to the US city and the Middle East.
"I would hope that because currently there is no other airline flying directly from Shannon to Chicago, they would see an advantage using Shannon for those flights," he said.
Tour operators have been invited to do familiarisation trips in Jordan next month. "We would be anxious to see more people travelling to Jordan, and using Amman as a connecting point to Dubai and Bangkok," he said.
Meanwhile, Air Canada is also due to start a summer daily service from Dublin and Shannon to Toronto in June as part of a European expansion plan which includes flights to Glasgow, Amsterdam, Munich and Madrid.
"Our objective would be to convince them to operate the route all year round," Mr Moroney said.
Shannon will also be bolstered by the resumption of business of Skynet, a Shannon-based airline which recently received its certificate from the Irish Aviation Authority. One of the major shareholders is the Irish-American owner of the Adare Manor Hotel, Mr Tom Kane.
The company's, chief executive, Mr Dick Healy, a former aviation consultant with Aer Rianta, said direct flights from Shannon to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport would begin in the first week of June, operating six days a week, with a Boeing 737 aircraft.
"From talking to some Dutch tour operators, we would certainly have tourist interest, but we also believe there is great potential for the businessman from Shannon to different locations in Europe because Amsterdam is such an important hub airport," Mr Healy said.
Flights to Warsaw and Vienna via Dublin are also due to start after Skynet takes delivery of more aircraft.