Opening a new £28.5 million terminal at Shannon yesterday, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said she intended to bring specific proposals on the future of Aer Rianta, the airports authority, before the Cabinet before the Easter recess.
She said that Aer Rianta was facing major challenges and opportunities. Aer Rianta had developed an ambitious capital development plan which would enable it to expand its domestic operations to meet the unprecedented rates of growth in traffic, thus enabling it to continue playing an important role in the advancement of trade and tourism.
"This programme is costly to finance, and at the same time the company lost a substantial stream of cash flow due to ending of the intra-EU duty-free concession on June 30th, 1999. It was against this background that I mandated the board of Aer Rianta to examine the future strategic options of the group," Ms O'Rourke said
The consultants engaged by herself and the Minister for Finance had submitted their report in December, which she had had published and submitted to the Cabinet. She had met Aer Rianta's staff and unions, and local authorites to hear their views on its future.
"I can assure the board, management and staff of the Government's continued support for Shannon," she added. "I was told Shannon was on its last legs; not true." An independent report had estimated that the airport was responsible for 36,000 jobs in the west. Last year was very significant for Shannon when passenger numbers reached almost 2.2 million, and cargo traffic also increased to record levels.
Passenger growth in the first quarter of this year was predicted at about 25 per cent. Projections indicated that the number of passengers through Shannon will reach 2.5 million by 2002. The new terminal doubles passenger capacity at Shannon to 4.5 million.
The total capital investment by Aer Rianta in the building is £28.5 million, in addition to an investment of £7 million over recent years. Referring to reports of a possible return by Ryanair to Shannon, Ms O'Rourke said: "If Michael O'Leary wants to come back to Shannon, he will be as welcome as the flowers in May".
The chairman of Aer Rianta, Mr Noel Hanlon, said that contrary to some reports, Shannon Airport was thriving and had just completed its best year.