Shannon Airport Authority has secured planning permission for an additional 1,000 car-parking spaces to cope with the spiralling passenger numbers going through Shannon.
The decision by Clare County Council to grant planning permission for the proposal follows continued growth at Shannon for the first half of 2006. Figures provided by the authority show that 1.4 million passengers passed through Shannon from January to the end of June.
The authority expects 3.5 million passengers to use the airport in 2006, compared to 3.3 million in 2005. To date this year, the authority has seen overall traffic increase by 20 per cent, with transatlantic traffic up by 13 per cent, European traffic up by 31 per cent and UK traffic up by 21 per cent. Work is expected to begin shortly on the additional car-parking spaces to bring the overall number to 4,500 spaces at Shannon. In granting permission, the council expressed its preference for a multi-storey car park. The permission comes a month ahead of the authority commissioning a long-awaited €2.8 million sewage treatment works.
Planning was granted for the works in August 2004.
