New figures have revealed that the number of passengers passing through Shannon Airport fell by almost 4% last year.
The CSO’s passenger numbers data, which has just been released, reveals the full extent of what was a difficult 2019 for the facility.
Management at the Aiport had expressed confidence of a return to growth this year, but that has now been sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CSO’s data covering all of 2019 has revealed that across the past 12 months, Shannon was the only major airport in the country to suffer in terms of passenger numbers.
Just over 1.6 million passengers flew through Shannon Airport last year, down 60,000 on the same figure for the previous year 2018.
The 3.7% drop is in contrast to growth of 4.2% at Dublin and 7.7% in Cork.
Last year was a challenging year for Shannon, with the grounding of Boeing’s 737-Max aircraft resulting in route losses, while the numbers using the popular UK routes fell.
Despite this, London remains the most popular destination, with Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick Airports making up three of the top five locations for passengers and accounting for almost a third of total traffic.
Hope had been expressed by Shannon Group of a turnaround in fortunes this year for the airport; however, with COVID-19 seriously impacting on the travel industry, 2020 is likely to be even more stark.
Michael Glynn, Clare FM, first for local news.
