Shannon airport is set to lose millions of euros worth of business with confirmation that the largest carrier of US military personnel through Shannon is set pull out of the midwest airport next month and move its military technical stops to Germany instead.
World Airways said last month it was "reviewing possible alternatives to Shannon," but has now confirmed that from July 1st, it will use Leipzig in Germany as its "primary technical stop for US military flights".
The move is expected to result in the loss on average of three flights and 750 troops a day; last year 330,000 military personnel stopped over. While it is not known how much Shannon could lose as a result of the pull-out, it is believed that the airport earned an estimated €14 million during the first three months of this year with about 750 flights and 116,450 troops passing through on three main carriers. Many of these flights were operated by World Airways.
Asked how many flights would be affected by the move, a World Airways spokesman said: "We don't discuss military statistics, but it would be safe to say this involves daily operations."
Shannon airport has said in the past: "We do not disclose the numbers carried on specific airlines or the revenue earned from such activity, as it is deemed commercially sensitive information."
World Airways is the world's largest transporter of US military personnel and has for many years used Shannon as a refuelling and technical stop for aircraft carrying troops to and from Afghanistan, the Gulf and US bases in Europe.
North American Airlines and American Trans Air also use Shannon. In recent years, however, World Airways has been Shannon's largest "technical transit airline partner". The airport is also understood to have profited by as much as €100 million from US military transit traffic since the invasion of Iraq in 2002.
World Airways said last night: "We may continue to use Shannon periodically for World Airways. We have utilised Shannon successfully for many years."