Madam, – “One of the unfulfilled hopes for the west of Ireland, and indeed the country as a whole, in the 19th century was the development of Galway as a major transatlantic port” (June 17th, 1861, reproduced in From the Archives,June 17th). Then, your newspaper fiercely criticised the unwillingness of the Westminster government to pursue such a grand vision for Ireland. It might be similarly appropriate to examine the failure of today’s Government to develop Shannon Airport as a major transatlantic airport.
No airport in Europe is better placed than Shannon to become the major hub for transatlantic air travel, with Aer Lingus being one of the world’s greatest airlines. Instead, Shannon struggles for survival, with Aer Lingus recently announcing it is to suspend its transatlantic flights from Shannon from January 5th to March 27th .
The question is, how can this be? After all, Aer Lingus should be able to use an Irish hub to build a huge transatlantic business? The answer, in part, is that Dublin is drifting toward being the major transatlantic hub that Shannon should be.
Aer Lingus has no flights from Shannon to other European cities (leaving aside the recently agreed regional arrangements with Aer Arann). However, Dublin does operate as an Aer Lingus hub allowing travellers to book flights to the US via Dublin from certain European airports (eg Dusseldorf), although not from others (eg Hamburg). Dublin is a natural hub for Aer Lingus, and the airport is already one of the busiest international airports in the world.
The transatlantic business that Aer Lingus funnels through Dublin is good, and it is very likely in the airline’s best interest, but it is not obviously in the best national interest. Dublin is constricted in terms of space and Terminal 2, for instance, cannot be expanded for that reason. The surrounding area has seen residential development during the boom and residents from the general area have complained about air and noise pollution and opposed the building of a new runway.
Shannon, on the other hand, offers the potential for almost unlimited growth, far into the future. Shannon offers the potential to become perhaps the largest airport in the world, with a tremendous boost in terms of jobs and prosperity.
If Ryanair goes ahead with its declared intentions for its own intercontinental airline in the years to come (a likely prospect) it is most likely that it also will use Dublin as a hub. If that happens, then Dublin will gradually grow until eventually it gains too much momentum to be anything other than an unplanned, gigantic, sprawling mess; the inevitable result of a disastrous lack of vision and forward thinking, just like the city that it serves. The airport will be simultaneously too big for Dublin, and a pale reflection of what might have been had Shannon been developed as it should be.
It is not yet too late to avoid this huge opportunity from being turned into an unforgiveable lost opportunity, but it will take a great deal of vision to achieve the best outcome. – Yours, etc,