Barring politicians from management roles in the new airport authorities will be one of the key factors in the successful break-up of state airline monopolies, a Canadian airport manager has told a conference in Shannon.

Mr Louis Turpen, president and chief executive of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said Canadian airports, whose experience was similar to Shannon, thrived when their running was handed over to regional bodies.

Mr Turpen said that, while the Canadian government had made a "big play" of giving regional control to 23 of 26 regional airports, the reality was that most were being run on a poor financial footing and were in "dire need" of investment, which the government was not prepared to make.

The solution was an airport bond of 4.4 billion Canadian dollars - the largest such bond in Canada's history - which was spent on an airside and terminal development programme.

Drawing parallels with Shannon Mr Turpen said while Toronto was not a destination for much of the traffic it handled, its proximity to most cities in north America made it an international gateway and hub. Shannon could develop in such a way as a European gateway, he suggested.

However, Mr Turpen said strict rules needed to be applied to airport management and one of these was management must be allowed to pick directors from a list of qualified candidates, excluding anyone who had served in political office in the last two years.

Mr Turpen also warned against completely privatising the airports, pointing out that a purely commercial vehicle would seek to make profits from ancillary activities such as airport shopping, whose profits might not be reinvested in aviation.