Cargo facility at Ireland’s Shannon Airport on hold

Irish media is reporting that the planned expansion of cargo facilities for Shannon Airport, located on the west coast of Ireland, has been put under performance review for the first quarter of 2016. One source said plans for Shannon’s €20 million cargo hub have “crash-landed.”

The Dublin Airport Authority signed an agreement with construction firm Lynx International Group to establish the hub in 2012. However, in a more recent letter to the Clare County council, Mary Considine, an airport official, confirmed that the project was not moving ahead with Lynx. Considine said the plan had been “hatched in better economic times.”

Richard Cahill, a legislative candidate in County Clare, where the airport is located, said workers have been contacting him with concern about losing their jobs. “They are feeling decidedly nervous about the situation despite recent records showing that Shannon is a more financially efficient operation than its Dublin counterpart,” Cahill said.

Cahill has asked IAG, which bought Ireland’s Aer Lingus in August 2015, to assure Shannon- based staff that the review will not have any effect on their employment. Aer Lingus performs its own cargo handling  operations at Shannon now. He said IAG and Aer Lingus should “state their intentions” for the cargo operation at Shannon Airport. An Aer Lingus spokesman said the airline will review its cargo operations at Shannon next year. IAG stated “under IAG’s structure, Aer Lingus, as well as all the airlines in the Group, is responsible for its own operation.”