The number of US troops passing through Shannon airport increased dramatically last month following a massive 77 per cent drop in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period in 2006.
Last month's increase of almost 5,000 military personnel on 42 flights is mostly attributed to an expansion of services by Omni Air International. The company began a programme of flights for the Pentagon last month which could see as many as 25,000 more troops passing through Shannon every month.
In April, 14,356 US military personnel passed through Shannon compared to 9,482 in March, 8,488 in February and 8847 in January. However, the number of soldiers who passed through the airport up to the end of last month is still fewer than for the whole of January 2006. The figure for April is still 50 per cent down on the same month last year.
Figures released this week by the airport confirmed that 41,173 troops stopped at Shannon in the first four months of this year compared to 145,741 for the same term in 2006, a 71 per cent drop.
The figures for the first quarter of this year were down 77 per cent on the same period last year.
The new business generated by Omni Air International has provided a significant boost at the airport after the biggest carrier of US military personnel for the Pentagon pulled out last year. World Airways shifted its military technical stops to Leipzig, Germany, on July 1st, 2006, citing economic reasons.
Following the pull-out by World Airways last year, there was a dramatic drop in US military traffic at Shannon. Figures released by the airport have confirmed that more troops passed through the airport in January 2006 than in the first four months of this year combined.
Shannon earns an estimated €8 million a year from the US military and its much-publicised losses would be far greater if it did not have the military business.
Meanwhile, a recent poll carried out by Lansdowne Market Research on behalf of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance shows that 58 per cent of those polled said they were opposed to the use of Shannon by the US military, while 19 per cent said they were in favour. Some 21 per cent said they had no opinion, while 2 per cent said they did not know.
Alliance chairman Roger Cole said: "It seems self-evident that the use of Shannon airport in the war, especially now that the number of US troops using it are increasing, is and should be an election issue."