Aer Arann has announced four new routes out of Shannon in franchise agreement with Aer Lingus.
At press conference this morning in Shannon, Aer Arann chief executive Paul Schutz confirmed the carrier made a small loss last year.
The new routes will deliver 120,000 passengers to Shannon each year in services to Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Bristol. The new services will create 20 jobs.
However, Shannon airport director Martin Moroney confirmed that Shannon is projecting for 2 million passengers this year — a drop of 800,000 on the figure for 2009.
Fine Gael TD Pat Breenwelcomed Aer Arann's decision, describing it as a "vote of confidence" in Shannon airport and a boost for the region.
"I hope this is just the start of the fight-back for Shannon Airport. Now that Aer Lingus Regional is committed to developing short-haul services out of Shannon, its parent company Aer Lingus will also commit to deliver year-round transatlantic services to Shannon," he said.
