SHANNON:NINE FLIGHTS were cancelled at Shannon yesterday, while several others were disrupted after controllers at the airport walked off the job.
Staff at the Irish Aviation Authority’s en route communications centre at Ballycasey near Shannon also downed tools, forcing aircraft to take routes outside of Irish airspace. Controllers at both facilities were available to provide cover in the event of an aircraft emergency.
Five arrivals and four departures had to be cancelled, while a number of airlines reorganised their schedules so they could arrive or depart before the action commenced. The last plane to arrive at Shannon before controllers left their posts was a Ryanair flight from Birmingham, while the first casualty of the strike was a British Airways business-class flight from London City to New York.
The twice daily service, which makes a stopover at Shannon to refuel, was not scheduled to land until 2.10pm, just 10 minutes after the action commenced. While the flight could have arrived in Shannon before 2pm, it would have remained grounded for at least four hours because of the strike action.
In the end, British Airways cancelled the service, while the airline also delayed the departure of its second business-class flight from London so that it would arrive in Shannon shortly after the four hour work-to-rule had finished.
There was also a scramble to get two Aer Lingus flights out of Shannon before the action commenced amid fears that any delays could have left the aircraft grounded until 6pm. The Aer Lingus flights to Dublin and Boston departed Shannon at 12.33pm and 1.16pm respectively.
One of the few passengers who arrived at Shannon was Fr William Hanley from Askeaton Co Limerick, who was scheduled to travel to London with Aer Lingus at 12.45pm. Fr Hanley travelled to the airport unaware that his flight had been cancelled.
“They told me when I arrived that my flight had been cancelled and that they contacted my family about it. It is not a great inconvenience to me as my business in London was not particularly urgent but it is disappointing because you have to have patience to be able to wait around for hours. There isn’t too much here to do or pass the time,” he said.
Controllers did however provide emergency cover at Shannon as it is a designated emergency landing site for aircraft travelling on the north Atlantic route because of its strategic location and because it also has the longest runway in Ireland at 3.2km. Dozens of aircraft divert to the airport every year for a variety of reasons. Emergency cover was also provided so that the Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter could take off if required.