Passenger numbers at Shannon Airport fell in the first three months of this year.
New CSO figures show that 7,000 fewer passengers used the Airport between January and March, and that Shannon was the only one of Ireland’s main Airports which experienced a decline in passenger numbers during that time.
Clare FM’s Emma McGreivy reports.
Just under 270,000 passengers used Shannon between January and March, down from 277,000 in the same time last year.
The 2.6% decline contrasts with a growth rate of 7.3% in Dublin, and of 10.7% in Cork – there was growth twoo at Knock and Kerry.
There are some reasons for the decline – the tradiationally busy Easter weekend this year fell outside of this window, for example – but the Airport also lost thousands of passengers when both Aer Lingus and Norwegian International scaled back some of their transatlantic services.
London remained the most popular destination, with Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick accounting for almost half of all of Shannon’s traffic.
Freight traffic levels remained largely static.