A group of top officials has told the Government that the midwest region continues to be well served by a range of reliable and frequent air services from Shannon and Cork as well as regional airports, including Kerry and Knock, despite the loss of the Shannon-Heathrow service.
The report of the Senior Officials Group on Aviation Issues, established by the Government in the wake of the Aer Lingus decision to pull out of Shannon, was presented to the Cabinet at its weekly meeting on Wednesday and published yesterday.
"While acknowledging that the decision on Shannon-Heathrow is a loss to the region, counties in the wider midwest region, and along the western seaboard in particular, continue to be well served by a range of reliable and frequent air services at the State airports in Shannon and Cork and also at the regional airports, including Kerry and Knock. These airports provide several connectivity options to/from Dublin, London and Europe."
The report adds that while it is clear to the group that the loss of the direct Shannon-Heathrow connection will have a negative impact on connectivity to and from the region, unless an alternative carrier can be attracted to serve the route, the impact would depend on a range of mitigating factors.
"An analysis of traffic on the Shannon-Heathrow route shows that overall passenger numbers are down more than one-tenth over the last three years, and that there has been a reduction of more than one-third in reliance on Heathrow as a hub for international connections.
"This reduction in connecting traffic is almost certainly due to the increasing availability of alternative air access options from/to Shannon as well as the increasing operational difficulties at Heathrow.
"Analysis of alternative connectivity suggests that there should be little impact on connectivity with destinations in the Americas, as the best route is as likely to be through one of the US hubs served directly from Shannon (eg Newark, Chicago) as through Heathrow. However, there will be an adverse effect - in terms of both one-stop connectivity and flight duration - in travelling to key destinations in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Australia, as such destinations must generally be accessed through Heathrow or one of the other major European hubs."
The report adds: "the situation regarding European destinations is more complex. The analysis would suggest no loss of one-stop connectivity and a significant number of the alternative routes identified involved shorter flight duration than the Heathrow routes.
"However, overall the Heathrow routes were faster, the average loss of time travelling by the alternative routes rather than through Heathrow being of the order of 30 minutes per journey."
The report added that analysis for Tourism Ireland suggested that the impact of the withdrawal of the Aer Lingus Heathrow service, together with the reduction in direct services from North America to Shannon due to the Open Skies policy, was likely to affect the profile of overseas visitors to the west of Ireland, their length of stay, and consequentially the economic impact their expenditure brings to the region.
It added, though, that mitigating factors offset these negative impacts.
These included the fact that: Aer Lingus had confirmed its commitment to serving the transatlantic market to and from Shannon. Through a new link-up with US carrier JetBlue, access to and from Shannon will be possible via 50 airports in the US, Mexico and the Caribbean.
New direct services to Ireland are possible under "Open Skies". Aer Lingus has already started or is to launch new services to Washington, Orlando and San Francisco. Traditional travel patterns suggest that 50 per cent of North American visitors can be expected to include a trip to the western regions.
Ryanair already intends adding a new daily service to Stansted, Gatwick and Luton, bringing their services to the London market to seven per day.
