The largest carrier of US military personnel through Shannon airport has confirmed that it is "reviewing possible alternatives to Shannon" for some of its operations, a move which could see the mid-west airport lose millions of euro worth of business.
There has been speculation in recent days that World Airways will relocate part or all of its refuelling and technical operation at Shannon to the east German city of Leipzig. The company made a similar move in February 2003 when it diverted 17 of its regular flights to Frankfurt, all of which returned to Shannon some months later.
World Airways, which is the world's largest transporter of US military personnel, uses Shannon as a refuelling and technical stop for aircraft transporting troops to and from Afghanistan, the Gulf and US bases in Europe.
While two other carriers, North American Airlines and American Trans Air, also use Shannon, World Airways is at present Shannon's largest "technical transit airline partner".
A spokesman for World Airways has confirmed that "we are reviewing possible alternatives to Shannon for some of our operations but no decision has been concluded.
"We are looking at operational factors for us, including better aircraft and crew utilisation, because we already have several operations in Germany."
The company added, however, that "Shannon has always been one of our preferred locations in Europe, and will continue to be so regardless of the outcome of our current review".
Shannon is understood to have earned an estimated €14 million during the first three months of this year with over 116,450 troops passing through Shannon, an average of 40,000 a month.
This was a 21 per cent increase on the same period last year when 95,984 US service men and women stopped at Shannon. The Shannon Airport Authority is believed to have earned around €100 million from the Pentagon in the past four years.
An authority spokeswoman said: "We have not been made aware of any plans by any airline to withdraw services from Shannon airport and continue to have an exceptionally good working relationship with all our technical transit airline partners."
Prominent anti-war activist and retired Irish Army commandant Edward Horgan said: "I am somewhat sceptical of a World Airways pull-out. They moved briefly from Shannon in February 2003 and came back again. Can we bring back to life all those little children who have been killed by soldiers who we allowed pass through Shannon?"