Now that Aer Lingus has abandoned its London Heathrow connection at the airport in favour of a new Belfast International 'hub', the management at Shannon airport has been busy developing new initiatives.

They have responded by outlining a programme of incentives aimed at securing more year-round transatlantic traffic.

Airport charges are to be reduced over a three-year period in an effort to get airlines to commit to all year-round scheduled operations, with a minimum of three return services per week, during the winter months, which it is more difficult for airlines to sustain services.

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The deal is that the airlines who undertake these year round services will benefit from a 50% discount on airport charges over the five month winter period from November to March.

Airport Director, Martin Moroney, said the purpose of this traffic development scheme is to encourage airlines to retain and further develop all 12-month services as these are critical for Shannon and the West of Ireland.

Mr Moroney called on those in the tourism trade to respond with innovative pricing and product development in their sector to stimulate year round demand.

However, while it was only this month that the first Belfast flights actually took off, as far back as June, Aer Lingus was already being reported as seeking to open a new Belfast base and speculation was emerging on the resulting implications for Shannon.

It was late this summer that Aer Lingus actually confirmed it would be setting up a new base in Belfast and would be reallocating the Heathrow slots from Shannon to Belfast.

(BMcC)