Shannon Airport says it’s disappointed for its passengers with news that Norwegian is pulling its services from the Airport for the rest of the year.
The budget airline has been flying its Irish passengers from Dublin Airport only, since the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft worldwide forced it to reposition its aircraft.
Shannon says this is having a “serious impact” on Shannon passengers, and that Norwegian’s move – as well as a similar decision by Air Canada – will mean a loss of over 120,000 seats at Shannon this year, and a fall in overall passenger numbers.
However, the Airport remains confident that the services will be returned once the 737 Max fleet is back in action.
Independent Sixmilebridge Councillor PJ Ryan says it’s a deeply concerning time for Shannon.
Shannon Group statement:
“Shannon Airport is disappointed for its passengers with the news that as a result of the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, Norwegian will be unable to operate a Shannon service for the reminder of the year.
“The world-wide grounding of the 737 Max aircraft is having a serious impact for Shannon passengers. Proportionally, no other Irish airport has such a high level of activity operated by the 737 Max aircraft. At peak this aircraft type would have operated 13 weekly flights from Shannon to North America. We now estimate that the loss of these flights, which include this year’s Air Canada service, will mean a loss of over 120,000 seats at Shannon in 2019 and as a result our overall passenger numbers will be down.
“We remain confident that once the 737 Max aircraft is back flying that these services will be restored, as they were extremely popular in 2018.
“Shannon Airport continues to offer very extensive North American services with Aer Lingus, United, Delta, American Airlines all operating successful routes. In addition, we estimate growth in both the UK and European traffic.”
