BA twice daily stopovers at Shannon to give big boost to airport's revenue

SHANNON AIRPORT is set to benefit from an additional revenue stream following the announcement that British Airways (BA) will start twice daily stop-overs at the airport.

In the autumn of 2009, BA will launch its twice-daily business class service between London and New York, the first ever long-haul service from London City Airport.

As part of this new route, the airline will stop for re-fuelling at Shannon. Although the airline will not accept new passengers at Shannon, those travelling with BA from London City Airport will disembark for immigration facilities, allowing them to circumvent delays at the US side.

The stop-over will have a "fairly huge" economic impact on the airport, said Shannon airport director Martin Moroney, as it will bring in revenue from landing, fuel and catering charges. Moreover, commercial facilities at the airport can also expect to get a boost from disembarking passengers.

Mr Moroney also hopes that BA's use of the airport will attract other carriers to consider a stop-over at Shannon. BA has not operated any service out of Shannon since the early 1990s and Mr Moroney said he was, "delighted to have them back doing business with us".

Following a tender process, Shannon was selected as the stop-over location, due to the length of its runway, its commercial refuelling facilities and its US immigration facilities. Aircraft will only stop at Shannon on the west-bound leg of the journey, as due to the length of the runway at London City airport, the maximum take-off payload is restricted and therefore requires a technical fuel stop en route to the US.

BA will fly an Airbus 381 on the route, with capacity for just 32 business class passengers.

The decision is welcome news for the airport, which has suffered since Aer Lingus decided to switch its Heathrow service from Shannon to Belfast airport earlier this year.

While the airport is continuing to search for a replacement carrier for this route, Mr Moroney said that the recent establishment of CityJet's Shannon-Paris route is going "very well" and that the airline will expand the number of passengers on the route in the autumn.