Following the news that Norwegian Air has suspended flights to and from Cork and Shannon Airports for the rest of 2019, a spokesperson for Shannon Group has said, "Shannon Airport is disappointed for its passengers with the news that as a result of the continued grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, Norwegian will be unable to operate a Shannon service for the reminder of the year.
"The worldwide grounding of the 737 Max aircraft is having a serious impact for Shannon passengers. Proportionally, no other Irish airport has such a high level of activity operated by the 737 Max aircraft. At peak, this aircraft type would have operated 13 weekly flights from Shannon to North America. We now estimate that the loss of these flights, which include this year’s Air Canada service, will mean a loss of over 120,000 seats at Shannon in 2019, and, as a result, our overall passenger numbers will be down."
Confident Services Will Eventually Be Restored
The spokesperson added, "We remain confident that once the 737 Max aircraft is back flying, these services will be restored, as they were extremely popular in 2018.
"Shannon Airport continues to offer very extensive North American services, with Aer Lingus, United, Delta and American Airlines all operating successful routes. In addition, we estimate growth in both UK and European traffic."
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
