Mr. Conal Henry:

No, through Cork Airport. There are two Amsterdam routes out of Cork and there is no US route out of Cork. Cork is looking at Shannon and wishing for US connectivity while Shannon is looking at Cork wishing for European connectivity. Meanwhile, there is little competition provided through the other airports. I am sue that upsets people and creates poltiical problems but that encapsulates the issue. The four airports on the western seaboard are all competing with each other and that removes the competition for the airport on the eastern seaboard.

Specifically on putting a European hub into Shannon, we are working hard on that but these decisions are made in a fairly unpredictable manner within airlines. The committee will have heard from my opening statement that I was involved with this a million years ago when I worked in Ryanair so I have some insight into the matter. With the way those decisions are made, we can do our best but even our best might not be good enough. The decisions are made with regard to a bunch of other factors that are outside our control. What we have to do is go in, deeply understand what each of the airlines is looking for, deeply understand how we can provide for those airline requirements and be in constant contact with the airlines. As I understand our route development work, that is exactly what is going on.