Listening to RTE this morning they had a piece on how under-utilised Shannon is while this 737 Max jet crisis continues. A couple of interesting statistics were given by the CEO of Shannon Airport. Business is up over 30% in the last few years and has just been halted by the Max jet issue, that Shannon's current capacity is 4.5 Million per anum. That's for an airport that's not got a huge catchment population.
Cork County alone has over 500,000 people in it, and 250,000 city on its doorstep. Shannon is 24Km and about a half an hour from Limerick City with a population of 94,000.
But the really stark statistic that she gave was that Dublin Airport currently has 86% of the national flight numbers. She said the only place in Europe with a comparable percentage of national numbers is Schippol in Holland, but that that number was decreasing. In Ireland, Dublin airport is expanding even further. Their new runway is not being built for less traffic.
The interview on RTE radio included an interview with a guy running a family hostel business in Doolin which opened in 1983 but is now having to close. He says the tourists are having to fly in and out of Dublin now, and so spend a day coming and another day going.
The plug-hole in the pale is dragging us all into its vortex
