Shannon Airport is anticipating a strong 2017 summer with a 16pc increase in capacity across 35 services in all during this year’s season.
Operations Director Niall Maloney said: “Shannon has a really strong outbound offering but from an inbound perspective, we are expecting a really strong year again, from Europe and the US. Shannon is the key gateway airport on the Wild Atlantic Way, which is attracting more tourists year in year out, so that’s driving a lot of the inward demand. The Wild Atlantic Way has been a phenomenal success for the region.”
The US is strengthened again this year with the addition of the new Norwegian Air International services set to commence on July 1 between Shannon and Stewart International Airport, Orange County, and from Providence Green Airport, Rhode Island. The new services will deliver the largest number of US services from Shannon in over 17 years as five airlines operate to seven destinations.
Europe, too, gets a boost this year with Lufthansa having just launched its weekly Frankfurt service from Shannon, while SAS will operate a twice weekly Stockholm service from August.
Airport Managing Director Andrew Murphy said: “It’s all hands on deck as our 2017 summer schedule is promising to be a very busy one. Capacity on the sun holiday routes, in particular, is up 16pc this year, resulting in an additional 25,000 seats this summer”
There are also frequency increases on Birmingham (Aer Lingus Regional), which will go daily from six per week; Lanzarote (Ryanair), which increases to two weekly services; and Malaga (Aer Lingus and Ryanair), which increases to seven weekly services in addition to the return of weekly inbound French charter flights from Paris, Nantes, Marseilles, Toulouse, and Bordeaux.
