SHANNON AIRPORT Authority has recorded an estimated €30 million in profits in the past four years from US troops using the airport.
The airport confirmed yesterday that more than 250,000 US troops used the airport’s facilities in 2008. According to figures from the airport authority, the final quarter of 2008 proved to be the busiest quarter for the airport in terms of troop traffic last year.
The figures show that 70,076 troops passed through Shannon between October and the end of December, bringing to 256,353 the total number of US troops who used the airport’s facilities last year.
The airport generated some €7 million in profits from the business last year. The 2008 total brings to €30 million the amount the airport has made in profits from the troop traffic since the start of 2005.
However, the figures released by the Shannon Airport Authority yesterday show that the number of troops using the airport has steadily fallen off in the past number of years, with a 2 per cent drop on the 262,816 who went through Shannon in 2007.
The statistics show that in 2006 280,785 troops used Shannon, this following 350,688 who used the airport’s facilities in 2005.
Anti-war activist Ed Horgan yesterday called on president-elect Barack Obama “to cease immediately” the use of Shannon airport by the US military once he takes office next week. “The continued use of Shannon by the US military is outrageous and a clear breach of Irish neutrality.”
However, Clare Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley said: “The traffic has been a considerable source of income for the airport, but the change in administration may herald a very different foreign policy and that may significantly reduce the number of troops going through Shannon.
“This will create a further challenge for the airport authority which is already facing a drop off in regular terminal traffic.
“The military business is welcome and has been significant but has always been regarded as peripheral and something that the airport could never depend upon.
“The board at Shannon has recognised this for quite a long time, and will be ready to weather the storm.”
