Thank you for taking an interest in Shannon Airport. We’ve put together answers to some of the most common questions we get asked about routes, destinations, and more.
If you have questions related to an upcoming trip from Shannon Airport, please click here, and if you have a question you can't find the answer to, please contact us here.
I prefer to travel from Shannon Airport, but you don’t always have flights to where I want to go. Why don’t you just add more destinations?
Good question! At Shannon Airport, we have a dedicated route development team, and their job is to grow existing routes and to win more routes for us. It can be a prolonged process which is why we always have that team working on it! Our airport charges are competitive and we offer attractive deals to airlines to encourage them to fly from Shannon Airport.
Key considerations for airlines include, the local market size, potential average fares, competition for the aircraft from other destinations globally, type of travel such as business or leisure, will the route be impacted by seasonality, access to the aircraft and projected profitability.
A destination I flew to before isn’t available anymore. What happened to the route?
We know that the discontinuation of a favourite route can be a real inconvenience, and if you’ve been affected by this we’re very sorry. There are lots of reasons why an airline might choose to change or remove a route. Airlines might expand a route that’s profitable, but if a route doesn’t make enough money or makes a loss for the airline then they might unfortunately make the choice to discontinue that route. To help make our routes a success, we’re continuously investing in marketing and marketing support with airlines and tourism partners, and in enhancing the airport experience, to make Shannon a desirable destination to fly to and from.
Does it cost too much for airlines to fly out of Shannon Airport?
We are proud to say Shannon Airport offers very competitive airport charges. Our teams, along with our tourism partner such as Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, are working hard to make Shannon Airport, as well as the local region, an attractive destination for airlines and to incentivise them to fly from here. Landing fees make up a tiny percentage of an airline’s costs - with fuel, the purchase and upkeep of the planes themselves, and staff accounting for most of the ticket price.
I’ve heard that passenger numbers from Shannon are going down and I’m worried about what this means for the region.
The good news is that passenger numbers since 2014 have increased by 34%, and 2018 was our strongest year this decade with just under 1.9 million passengers travelling through Shannon Airport. That means we saw growth of 6.5% in just 12 months which is really positive.
2019 has been a more difficult year for us. In March, the decision was made to ground all Boeing 737 Max aircraft worldwide due to safety concerns. While we believe this was the best decision for passenger safety, it has had a strong impact on us with the loss of 13 services every week making up 120,000 seats. Here at Shannon Airport, our strong ties with the US mean that the grounding has had a greater effect on us than on other Irish airports. We are hopeful that this situation will be temporary, and we will be back at our usual capacity soon!
Why are prices for flights from Shannon Airport different to the prices of flights to the same destinations from other airports?
At larger airports, airlines often have much greater capacity to fill and have to compete with one another more aggressively to attract passengers. This means fares to the same or similar destinations will often be lower at larger airports. At smaller airports, where there is less capacity and competition, prices for some flights may be higher. Prices are set by the airlines and not by airports, but we do make sure that airlines are aware of customer feedback.
How is Shannon Airport investing in development?
Over the last number of years, we have invested more than €40 million in a range of projects that have helped to transform the airport environment and improve the experience of travelling through Shannon Airport for our customers.
Shannon Duty Free has been renovated; the transit, executive lounges, and departure gate areas have been renovated; we installed a world-first combined EU/US passenger screening process to cut down waiting times at security; developed four new food and drink outlets; and launched Europe’s first airport sensory room for passengers with Autism or other sensory needs, along with implementing our passenger assistance programme. We also fully resurfaced out Runway at night, without closing the airport, at a cost of over €12m, which was entirely self-funded without any support from the Government.
These investments are all part of our commitment to building a better airport underpinned by a great customer experience. After all, we’re all about making it easy!