Aer Lingus Suspends Winter Shannon Flights

Aer Lingus is suspending its transatlantic routes from Shannon this winter after incurring heavy losses.

Despite operating the service for over 50 years, flights from Shannon to New York and Boston have incurred losses of €163 million during the winter months since 1995, according to the airline.

It said that given the average operating loss per winter season of almost €11m, it is suspending the flights from the start of January to the end of March next year.

In addition to the losses, it has sustained declining load factors on these routes for "a number of years", it said.

A spokesman for the airline said that he could not say if this suspension will occur every year as the airline does not plan its schedule so far in advance.

Meanwhile today, Ryanair, has again called on the Irish Government to end what it called "the crisis in Irish tourism" by scrapping its €10 flight fee and reversing Dublin Air Authority price increases.

The budget airline claimed that traffic at Dublin Airport fell by over 550,000 passengers in April, due to the volcanic ash disruption, but fell by more than 650,000 in the first three months.

Ryanair also said that Dublin Airport’s traffic was on track to fall under 18 million passengers in 2010, having fallen from 23.5 million in 2008.

Ryanair’s Stephen McNamara said: "This month the excuse from the Govt for the collapse in traffic at Ireland’s gateway airport will be much easier than the usual lies about it being an ‘international phenomenon’ – they will just blame the volcano.

(DW/GK)