Ms Mary Considine:

I know it is said that a week is a long time in politics, but it is a very long time in aviation these days. The prospects for the global aviation sector have worsened as the virus continues its hold on our people, our way of life and our economy. The situation in which we now find ourselves as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is a far cry from the positivity back in January, when we were anticipating growth across all our Shannon Group businesses, including the airport.

Since presenting to the joint committee on 7 October, the situation at Shannon Airport has deteriorated considerably, unfortunately. On 15 October, Ryanair announced its decision to temporarily close its bases at Shannon and Cork airports for the winter period. We have since moved into level 5 restrictions, and Ryanair has advised us that it has seen a total collapse in its forward bookings. The airline now plans to cancel its flights from Shannon Airport for a month, from 14 November to 12 December. This is really disappointing news for us and for the other airports affected. As a result, we now expect passenger numbers to be down by more than 80% by the end of the year.

This is also very disheartening for our airport employees, who have worked hard to keep the airport operational throughout the pandemic. There is genuine worry now among businesses in this region who rely on the connectivity that the airport provides and also for those involved in tourism who rely on inbound and outbound flights from Shannon Airport to make a living. There is great disappointment among our loyal customers as well, whose continued support we depend on. This latest announcement shows just how critical the situation has become, and how vulnerable the aviation sector is right now.

It copper-fastens the urgent need for targeted financial assistance to protect our airports, airlines and our air connectivity. To put the situation in context, we have had no transatlantic services operating from Shannon since March of this year. Two of our US carriers, Delta and United, have advised that they will not resume services into Shannon until 2022 at the earliest. Aer Lingus has also suspended its transatlantic and Heathrow services.

It is ironic that we have just marked the 75th anniversary of the first ever scheduled commercial transatlantic passenger plane which landed at Shannon Airport on 24 October 1945. As a result of that first transatlantic service, Shannon became the original airport gateway between the US and Europe, developing a strong transatlantic business and becoming the home to many global firsts for aviation.

All of this, unfortunately, is poles apart from where we find ourselves today. It creates a determination and resolve, however, to restore our lost connectivity. Since we last met, we welcomed the announcement in budget 2021 of €5 million capital funding for Shannon Airport. It will also provide for the extension of the employment wage subsidy scheme and the waiver on commercial rates. However, in light of the group’s revenues being down on average €1.3 million a week since the onset of the pandemic, we urgently require further supports.

The aviation sector is in free fall. As an island nation we need to connect to the rest of the world. Our economy is dependent on a thriving aviation industry. While recovery in the aviation sector is some time off, we must protect our nation’s air connectivity and our vital airport infrastructure. What we need now is a clear pathway to recovery for aviation, a robust system to allow us to get aviation moving. We welcome the decision by the Government to implement the EU traffic light system. There is still confusion, however, as to how it will be implemented which urgently needs to be addressed at EU level. There needs to be one streamlined, harmonised system that is applied throughout Europe for it to work in a meaningful way.

The continuation of current travel restrictions is heavily impacting passenger numbers. Testing instead of restriction on movements has to be the way forward.