Shannon Airport (; ) is an international airport located in County Clare in Ireland. It is adjacent to the Shannon Estuary and lies halfway between Ennis and Limerick. With almost 2 million passengers in 2023, the airport is the third busiest airport in the Republic of Ireland, and the fifth busiest on the island of Ireland. Shannon has had a long association with transatlantic flight, owing to its position on the west coast of Ireland and being one of the most westerly international airports in Europe. One half of Shanwick Oceanic Control, which controls all air traffic on the north eastern quadrant of the North Atlantic Ocean, is located close to the airport in nearby Ballygirreen.
The airport was built in the late 1930s, with the first commercial flight taking place in 1939. Shannon was the landing point for the first transatlantic proving flight in 1945 and became the world's first duty-free airport in 1947. By the 1960s, it was a busy refuelling stop for many transatlantic carriers. Europe's first United States border preclearance facility opened there in 1986. At , Shannon has the longest runway in Ireland, which allowed it to be a designated alternative landing site for the Space Shuttle.
History Establishment In the late 1930s, transatlantic air traffic was dominated by flying boats, and a flying boat terminal was located at Foynes on the south side of the Shannon Estuary. However, it was realised that changing technology would require a permanent runway and airport.
In 1936, the Government of Ireland confirmed that it would develop a site at Rineanna for the country's first transatlantic airport. The land on which the airport was to be built was boggy and on 8 October 1936 work began to drain it. In July 1939, a SABENA Savoia-Marchetti S.73 from Brussels via Croydon Airport was the first commercial flight to use the Rineanna airfield.
By 1942, a serviceable airport had been established and was named Shannon Airport. BOAC began scheduled service to Bristol on 21 February 1942 to provide a land plane connection between England and the flying boat terminal at Foynes. Aer Lingus began scheduled service to Dublin in August 1942.
Transatlantic service
By the end of World War II in 1945, the existing runways at Shannon were extended to allow transatlantic flights to take off. The first Air Services Agreement between Ireland and the United States in 1945 permitted U.S. airlines to serve only Shannon, and permitted Irish airlines to serve only Boston, Chicago and New York.
On 16 September 1945, the first transatlantic proving flight, a Pan Am DC-4, landed at Shannon from Gander. On 24 October 1945, the first scheduled transatlantic commercial flight using a land plane, an American Overseas Airlines DC-4, Flagship New England, stopped at the airport on the New York City–Gander–Shannon–London route. Trans World Airlines began service between New York and Paris via Gander and Shannon on 5 February 1946, and began a Shannon-Dublin tag flight in 1974 after the US Civil Aeronautics Board threatened to ban Aer Lingus from landing in New York. Aerlinte Eireann began service from Dublin to New York via Shannon on 28 April 1958.
In 1947, the "Customs Free Airport Act" established Shannon as the world's first duty-free airport, a move promoted by Brendan O'Regan. Shannon became a model for other duty-free facilities worldwide.
In 1969, it was announced that a new government agency, Aer Rianta (now the Dublin Airport Authority), would be given responsibility for Shannon Airport. Passenger numbers at the airport reached 460,000 that year. With the increase in passengers and the introduction of the Boeing 747, it was decided that a new enlarged terminal was needed. The first commercial operation of a 747 took place in April 1971, while the new terminal officially opened in May that year.
Aeroflot service Aeroflot began service to Shannon in September 1975 as a stop between the Soviet Union and other Communist bloc countries, such as Cuba and Angola. Aeroflot kept its own fuel storage at Shannon and allowed the airport to sell the Soviet fuel to other airlines.
The United States demanded that Ireland suspend Aeroflot's Shannon operations following the shooting down of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983, and Ireland temporarily banned Aeroflot later that year. Nonetheless, the Aeroflot operation returned and developed into a hub by the mid-1990s, with flights to New York, Chicago, Washington, Miami, and Havana, largely using Ilyushin Il-62 aircraft.
The cooperation between Aeroflot and Aer Rianta at Shannon also led to a joint venture between the two companies to open duty-free shops at Sheremetyevo Airport in 1987.
On 30 September 1994, Shannon was the site of the "circling over Shannon" diplomatic incident involving Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
The "Shannon stopover" In 1990, the U.S.-Irish bilateral agreement was changed to allow Irish airlines to serve Los Angeles and additional U.S. airlines to serve Dublin via Shannon. An amendment in 1993 allowed airlines to provide direct transatlantic services to Dublin, but 50% of transatlantic flights had to either originate or stop over in Shannon. During the 1990s, the airport began to struggle. However, 1996 saw the beginning of Continental Airlines flying between Dublin, Shannon and Newark, New Jersey. Shannon began to rebound in the late 1990s with the success of the Irish economy, the improving situation in Northern Ireland and an influx of American tourists.
In 2005, an agreement was reached regarding a transitional period. Beginning in November 2006 and ending in April 2008, the agreement gradually eliminated restrictions on cargo services. For passenger service, it reduced the stopover requirement and allowed Irish airlines to serve three additional U.S. destinations.
In 2007, the European Union and the U.S. announced that an agreement had been reached on an open skies aviation policy (EU–US Open Skies Agreement). The agreement came into effect from 30 March 2008, leading to the abolition of the Shannon Stopover, although this would have happened under the 2005 agreement anyway. In 2007, Shannon carried 3.2 million passengers.Shannon board tight-lipped on question of independence
Space Shuttle
The American embassy in Dublin wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs in 1995 to say that the United States space administration, NASA, might need to use the airport as a landing site for their Space Shuttles during any launch emergencies. The Americans said their spacecraft would be retrieved from Shannon and that they would pay compensation if it missed the airport and crashed on a populated area. They also mentioned that Irish authorities were obliged to allow the spacecraft to land according to international treaties signed by Ireland.
2000s Ryanair increased services and passenger numbers at the airport until 2008. However, after a disagreement with the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) in 2008, Ryanair announced that the number of based aircraft would be reduced from four to one and 150 jobs would be lost.Ryanair to reduce Shannon flights
CityJet launched a twice-daily route to Charles de Gaulle Airport in 2008 when Aer Lingus closed its London Heathrow flights.CityJet ups Shannon to Paris capacity CityJet pulled out of Shannon in October 2009.CityJet to axe Shannon services to Paris
Independent operation, 2012 to present
In December 2012, it was announced that Shannon Airport would separate from the Dublin Airport Authority, which still owns Dublin and Cork airports. On 31 December 2012 at 11:59 pm, Shannon Airport became a publicly owned commercial airport and is now operated and run by the Shannon Airport Authority plc. Shannon announced a target in 2012 to grow its passenger numbers to 2.5 million annually within five years. However, Shannon has fallen short of its stated targeted figure with just 1.74 million flying through the airport in 2017.
In March 2013, the new company appointed Neil Pakey as its first CEO. Traffic figures for June 2013 report an 8% increase on the previous year, the first time a traffic increase has been recorded in three years. On 21 March 2013, Ryanair announced a new twice-weekly route to Alicante, Spain, to begin on 5 June for the summer months. That brought Shannon's total to 33 seasonal scheduled summer routes. In August 2013, Aer Lingus announced a 1x weekly service to Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain, every Saturday during the winter months, using an A320. In October 2013, United Airlines confirmed it will increase capacity by 88% on its Shannon-Chicago route for 2014. In late 2013, Aer Lingus announced 2 new routes to Málaga, Spain, (two weekly) and to Bristol, UK, (one daily). Ryanair also announced 8 new routes from Shannon to continental Europe. The new routes began from the start of April 2014, and a second Boeing 737-800 was based at Shannon to accommodate the extra 300,000 passengers a year it would bring in. The destinations announced were Berlin Schonefeld, Beauvais, Memmingen, Warsaw Modlin, Kraków, Nice, Faro, and Fuerteventura.
On 4 July 2014, the "Bank of Ireland Runway Night Run" featured 1,200 people running along Shannon's runway to raise money for charity.
In late 2014, Aer Lingus Regional operator Stobart Air said that they would close their Shannon base in early 2015. They returned in June 2015 operating six flights weekly Birmingham service followed by six flights weekly Edinburgh service. In late 2015, they announced a new CEO for Shannon, Matthew Thomas. Ryanair announced that it will be ending its Paris and Memmingen routes in late 2016, and it also reduced its Manchester and London Stansted routes. Ryanair is aiming for 720,000 passengers in Summer 2017 even though they were close to 800,000 in Summer 2016. In October 2016, SAS announced a new route to Stockholm from 1 August 2017 to 7 October 2017. Shortly after that, Lufthansa announced a weekly service to Frankfurt, running from April to October in 2017. In September 2017, Ryanair announced a new Route to Reus. It will run through summer 2018 operating 2x weekly (Tuesdays and Saturdays), replacing the route to Berlin. The same day, Air Canada announced a new 4x weekly service to Toronto with the Boeing 737 MAX. In February 2018, Ryanair announced it would resume flights to Bristol and Liverpool from May 2018. In late 2018, Ryanair announced a new twice weekly service to Ibiza, and the resumption of flights to East Midlands, both beginning in April 2019. The East Midlands, Bristol and Ibiza flights are all being ceased at the end of the 2019 summer season due to fears of Brexit and the 737 MAX groundings. Due to the 737 MAX groundings, Air Canada and Norwegian Airlines suspended their routes to Shannon. This reduced the number of passenger by 120,000. On 23 October 2019, Lauda announced that they will launch a twice weekly flight to Shannon from their base in Vienna, operating every Wednesday and Saturday. The airport handled 1,864,762 passengers in 2018. This number is the highest passenger numbers since gaining independence from the DAA.
Use by foreign militaries Shannon Airport has a history of foreign military use. A large part of its business in recent years has been military stopovers, currently almost all American; however, the airport was also frequently used by the Soviet military until the 1990s, since Ireland, having a traditional policy of military neutrality, was not a member of NATO. There were some restrictions, such as carrying no arms, ammunition, or explosives, and that the flights in question did not form part of military exercises or operations. Shannon saw military transports throughout the Cold War and during the first Gulf War.