Liam Scollanargues against the centralisation of airport services in Dublin and Belfast and calls for a more nationwide focus.
There is no doubt that the loss of Heathrow services from Shannon airport is a significant blow for the mid-west of Ireland. The loss is symptomatic of a wider challenge to the economic growth of the west of Ireland and of an increasing imbalance between the country's east and west.
Belfast and Dublin give Ireland, North and South, the profile and critical mass that will underpin our international trading prospects. In this context, the Aer Lingus decision to hub from Belfast is understandable and another signal Northern Ireland will provide a new and welcome impetus to the island.
The accelerated development of Belfast is almost assured because it is driven by increased UK government-led investment in infrastructure in Northern Ireland of some £17 billion (€25 billion), which happens to be focused on the east.
And the powerful focus on Dublin is even more familiar to us all.
The rapid pace of development of the Belfast-Dublin corridor has raised the bar for all concerned with the quality of life on the island, with balanced regional development and with sustainability - in short, with how Ireland North and South is progressing.
Right now, with the recent Aer Lingus decision, the focus is on one of these elements - balanced regional development and, in particular, balanced regional air access. However, it is not correct to lay the blame entirely at the door of any one airline - or to expect it alone to furnish a solution.
There are several other factors involved that concern regional development policy and its practice.
The reaction of the mid-west to the loss of its Heathrow services is also understandable. The model of regional development pioneered originally by the creation of Shannon Free Airport Development Company (SFADCo) and the airport at Shannon was a beacon for localised progress.
Shannon was a hugely successful government intervention. Its success in regional development is plain to see in the number of industry and tourism attractions around the Limerick/Shannon area. The success of the model was linked directly to the freedom of SFADCo, and later Shannon Development, to engage in inward investment, innovation in indigenous development and tourism promotion linked to the airport.
The loss of the Heathrow slots is simply another chapter in the decline of a model which aggressively and successfully created balanced regional development in the mid-west of Ireland.
For those in the region, the loss of the Heathrow hub connection presents the challenge of having to stem any possible losses in its current profile for industry, enterprise and tourism.
For those outside the mid-west, southwest, west and northwest, the challenge is even greater - because those regions, particularly the west and northwest, did not even benefit from the positive regional discrimination available previously to the mid-west.
The positive developments in Northern Ireland, the emergence of the powerful Belfast-Dublin axis and the centralisation of air access in these two cities is really an east-of-Ireland phenomenon, begging a concomitant strategy for the entire west of Ireland.
What might be the steps in such a strategy?
First, positive Government discrimination for investment in the western regions is not enough when set against the powerful drivers of two cities on a small island. Stand-alone regional development programmes for the western regions from Cork to Donegal, backed by a strengthening of regional development bodies with resources and powers, is a basic essential. Second, the revision of the National Spatial Strategy could provide a strong and timely national context for such regional development.
Third, we know that air access is one critical dimension of regional development. The west of Ireland has three airports with runways to take large aircraft which can provide services into hubs and transatlantic destinations. Each airport is vital in its own region: Cork, and to an extent Kerry, for the south and southwest; Shannon for the mid-west; and Knock for the west and northwest. More than one million people live within a 90-minute drive from each of these airports, and they have the potential to sustain key air services for their regions.
Fourth, we need to take a more qualified approach to air access, one developed by an expert group on regional air access drawn from key airports and aviation interests.
As an island state on the periphery of Europe, our air access has long been mooted as critical to the development of our economy and tourism. But what body ensures this access is developed? Each of the other transport or access modes and infrastructures has a body charged with looking after its specific development.
The west of Ireland needs short-haul, point-to-point, scheduled services to the UK and Europe. It needs routes to key European hubs such as Heathrow and Charles de Gaulle which provide worldwide access. And it needs transatlantic services. The west of Ireland must have all three types of service.
The good news is that - with the exception of the northwest - we are well-served with direct point-to-point services to the UK. However, from a tourism perspective, the west of Ireland is lacking in short- and medium-haul services to the Continent - and flights into hubs and transatlantic routes are under threat.
Here we find the signs of market failure. We have competent airports that cover the regions requiring these services. What is needed is a partnership approach with these airports and relevant aviation bodies to develop markets within the context of EU guidelines and competition legislation.
Strong Government action must be supported by a resolute focus on operational competitiveness and excellence of service second to none on the part of each of the regional airports.
The loss of the Heathrow slots in Shannon is now most keenly felt by the surrounding region, and I hope Shannon will succeed in replacing them.
The focus for national policymakers must be on all of Ireland - and particularly on an all-west-of-Ireland basis if we are to dig our way out of this setback and build back to a sustainable foundation for all-year-round business connectivity direct into the west from Derry to Cork.
This is absolutely essential if balanced regional development is to become a reality. And it must be remembered that balanced regional development is at least as important to the quality of life of people living along the eastern regions of Ireland as it is to those in the west.
The combined impacts of Belfast and Dublin entail a great future for Ireland's international profile and global trading opportunities.
However, these juggernaut city drivers of prosperity need to be matched by a more deliberate, balanced and determined intervention by Government in regional development and air access.
That way connectivity, business opportunity and investment potential will be a prospect for the entire island of Ireland.
Liam Scollan is managing director of Ireland West Airport Knock and former CEO of the Western Development Commission