What does this Aer Lingus thing mean for the future of Shannon and indeed the West as a whole as well as outsiders like ourselves from the refined side of the country?
I’m on record here as saying what a complete and utter kip Shannon is:
Will we have to pay more taxes now to subsidise the boggers down there if they’re all made redundant?
How long will it be before the army have to go down there and stop looters from wrecking the Tesco and Supermacs in the ‘town centre’?
I’m not sure what the government should do here but I think one thing that might work is if every household in the east of the country is asked / forced to take one person from the West and add them to their family unit.
Basically you’d need to provide them with shelter and feed and clothe them. We could possibly also arrange to have a portion of them educated too if the education system is agreeable to the proposal.
Maybe then these turnip munchers will finally be able to speak properly.
I’m fooking well fed up of muck monsters going on about ‘Kilkinny’ and ‘Kirry’ all the time and things must change. This current impasse might just be a blessing in disguise to bring this about.
A fair commentary on both the social and economic consequences of the decision Bandage.
Of course for most of the last 20 years we have been paying more tax than the good people of Shannon who benefited from a lower corporation tax rate just to give them a sporting chance of making a proper town out of airport wasteland. Alas they could not do it.
I still remember as a child having a 3 or 4 day “holiday” in Shannon because we had free flights and free accommodation at the airport hotel. What craic that was I tell ya.
I was just thinking there that Shannon might now become a huge refugee camp.
Then I wondered whether it simply has been for the last 20 years already?
I don’t know if this is true but apparently Shannon Town Council got in touch with their counterparts in the Gaza Strip to see if they were interested in entering into a formal agreement where the two towns would become twins.
The Gaza Strip politely declined citing their fear of the potential damaging effects any link up with Shannon would have on their reputation.
Aer Lingus move 4 of their heathrow flights from Shannon to Belfast and the whole country goes nuts. I am absolutely gobsmacked! There has been nothing but this in the news in the last week. What is wrong with people? Is it because of the slow news time of year, or are people genuinely this crazy? Am i mistaken in saying that plenty of other airlines fly to other london airports on a daily basis?
Yet another example of this countrys’ media descending into the ridiculous doomsday scenarios that the American media loves to play.
The importance of Heathrow is strategic though Gerry. Those slots are worth millions. Aer Lingus only have them because they were a state airline and because of a relationship between Ireland and the UK from years ago. If they could sell them on the open market they’d earn a fortune because you simply cannot get a landing slot at Heathrow nowadays. It’s full and the airspace is full so it carries extra prestige.
That said I do think too much is made of its importance. It’s a poor enough gateway to London and there are loads of other ways of connecting in Europe. And if you’re going to connect anyway then sure you may as well connect in Dublin either.
The things that are most annoying me about it are:
Making the pilots from the 6 counties resign their positions and reapply under new terms and conditions for the Belfast slots. (I’d imagine that will be removed as part of whatever labour agreement is reached)
Haven’t seen the full terms and salaries for the Belfast jobs yet but disparity across the island of Ireland is not to be encouraged and the government should not be a willing player to such meddling. Why wouldn’t everyone move to Newry so?
IBEC complaining about the move. They defend every other business that screws over the customers and employees they haven’t a leg to stand on
The government should have either privatised it completely or kept it semi-state. This quarter-state business is useless. (I don’t think they should have privatised by the way).
US companies trying to tell us what to do with our aviation strategy. Jog on lads.
thats a separate issue (obviusly related) that does deserve its media coverage.
same as 1
dont know much about that but would they add to the coverage?
valid point
valid point
They are all valid points but its not what im annoyed about. Im annoyed about the likes of newstalk and other stations interviewing businesses and letting them tell their sob stories about how much business they will lose.
Also regarding the Heathrow slots. I realise they are like gold dust but Aer lingus still have those slots. So whats the issue here? I mean if a businessman wanted to go to shannon from london are they going to say that they cant go there now because they cant get a flight out from heathrow?
They are indeed all separate points to the ones you made Gerry - they’re just the parts of the story that annoy me the most.
The issue with Heathrow is the fact that those slots are worth far more internationally and in terms of prestige than any other slot. If Ryanair wanted to go to Heathrow they couldn’t because they’d be charged through the roof and they’d have to pay a fortune to get someone else’s slots. Aer Lingus have those slots for historic reasons but in all likelihood they wouldn’t be able to afford them now or justify buying them.
It’s not the issue of the businessman going to London that’s the problem. It’s the example of a South African businessman or something who flies into Heathrow and now can’t connect to Shannon. Shannon has marketed itself as being a low tax centre beside world class transport links. It has an airport that has always been given a false strategic importance (Shannon stopover etc) to bring business to the area. In fairness that has worked and there’s loads of big companies in Shannon. If it becomes more a Ryanair hub than a link to business travel through Heathrow then it loses much of its convenience.
Shannon being shafted again in the Budget has really been swept under rug by all the other fuck ups in the budget. The €10 flight tax on “long haul” flights is a joke. 1. They class long haul as anything over 300km 2. It yet again gives Dublin a further competitive advantage over the rest of the country.
Every flight from Shannon (bar ones to Dublin) will incur the €10 tax. Dublin on the other hand will still be able to offer flights to a range of UK destinations at the lower rate of €2 tax.
The government backed aer lingus pulling out of Shannon, in what was a purely political move, which has been proved since by the poor performance of the Belfast - Heathrow route. They now tax the regional airports while leaving Dublin off and there’s hardly been a whimper about it.
O’Leary has been threatening to pull out of Shannon for a long time due to the charges imposed by the DAA. This could well be the final nail in the coffin.
Makes you wonder what else they put through in the budget: “Ah sure we’ll take away their medical card, and with all the fuss over that they won’t notice all the other shit we took away too”
I know the Shannon stopover is a balls for a lot of people and that Shannon itself isn’t a wonderful airport but it’s damn site better than the majority of the hay barns that Ryanair fly into around Europe. Not to mention the access it gives to businesses in the west. NCC will be in with his usual tripe but it’s something that really pisses me off.
seems a little harsh on shannon to be honest but i do get the impression that if shannon was more viable economically it wouldnt be under so much threat the whole time
I find it hard to believe that the Government could give one airport (an already very successful one) such a competitive advantage over the struggling airports.
As you say if Shannon was more commercially viable it wouldn’t be under threat the whole time, but it’s not just Shannon. All the regional airports struggle (just look at Cork). In fairness your not going to notice 10 on your 700 flight to the states, but you will on your 90 flight to barcelona, so in effect it’s a tax on the low cost airlines and in particular Ryanair. O’Leary just shut a base in Valencia, that was only opened last year, with the loss of 700 jobs because the local authorities wouldn’t play ball with him on his terms.
Now there’s no way in hell the Irish Government should be bending over backwards to Michael O’Leary, but to start taxing the low cost products in times of a recession is a bit silly.
[quote=“The Runt”]I find it hard to believe that the Government could give one airport (an already very successful one) such a competitive advantage over the struggling airports.
As you say if Shannon was more commercially viable it wouldn’t be under threat the whole time, but it’s not just Shannon. All the regional airports struggle (just look at Cork). In fairness your not going to notice 10 on your 700 flight to the states, but you will on your 90 flight to barcelona, so in effect it’s a tax on the low cost airlines and in particular Ryanair. O’Leary just shut a base in Valencia, that was only opened last year, with the loss of 700 jobs because the local authorities wouldn’t play ball with him on his terms.
Now there’s no way in hell the Irish Government should be bending over backwards to Michael O’Leary, but to start taxing the low cost products in times of a recession is a bit silly.[/quote]
i agree not every government should be pandering to ryanair & their questionable work practicses - they should extend the mileage so you can fly from shannon to the island known as britain (puke) without paying the charge-
i dont think however 10 will make pople from munster fly via dublin ahead of shannon so dont think its a huge competitive advantage
[quote=“north county corncrake”]i agree not every government should be pandering to ryanair & their questionable work practicses - they should extend the mileage so you can fly from shannon to the island known as britain (puke) without paying the charge-
i dont think however 10 will make pople from munster fly via dublin ahead of shannon so dont think its a huge competitive advantage[/quote]
I don’t think it will. I suppose it’s more the point of it than the practicality of it. Some TD suggested last week that it should be 300km from our coastline and not from the specific airport which makes much more sense.
Its absolute nonsense. Our company is going mad over it. We stepped into Shannon to fill the Aer Lingers void and although we are losing money there too the numbers are up and people are slowly realising that there is life after Heathrow.
Its a brave thing to do and its good to work for an Irish company that puts people before profit.
Reading between the lines he must have said something bold, possibly about the Greens (has an agri background) on Twitter in the past. Twitter account deleted.
