Minister puts sale of airport land on hold

Plans by Aer Rianta to sell 169 acres surrounding Shannon Airport have been put on hold by the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan.

The development and agricultural land was to be auctioned next Wednesday, but the Minister said he did not want this to go ahead. The lands were expected to realise about €3 million to fund essential capital works at the airport, including a new sewage treatment plant for the facility.

Mr Brennan said he wanted the new Shannon Airport authority to study whether the land needed to be sold at all.

An Aer Rianta spokeswoman said the company accepted it and understood the decision would be reviewed by the new authority.

Authority member Mr Tadgh Kearney has been critical of Aer Rianta pressing ahead with the sale and the Minister said the new authority would "examine the decision for themselves and make a decision on what is proper for Shannon".

The directors received their seals of office yesterday, an event described by Mr Brennan as historic. "When the history of Shannon comes to be written, today will be seen as a major turning point in the future growth of the airport. It is a new beginning and I have asked the board to confound their critics who say that Shannon's future was to remain in a group where it would receive ongoing subsidies over many, many years rather than a bright new future of growing the airport as one of our three national State airports."

The authority must now prepare a business plan for the airport to allow the Government approve the transfer of the airport's assets to take place by next April - after October 1st the authority will be able to enter commercial negotiations with new airlines.

Minister Brennan said: "There are challenges to be faced. The new authority has to proceed with restructuring and secure full sanctioning of business plans."

On any change to the existing Shannon stop-over, Minister Brennan said: "Nothing sudden is going to happen, but change is inevitable and I want to work out a timeframe with the authority so we can manage that change on a phased basis."

Talks on "open-skies" between the US and the EU are currently stalled and a deal is not expected until sometime next year, according to Mr Brennan.