Shannon enjoys bumper August Bank Holiday Weekend traffic

Shannon Airport has enjoyed its busiest August Bank Holiday Weekend in five years, with traffic over the four day period further illustrating continuing growth in the inbound and outbound tourism market.

The airport handled over 40,000 passengers from Friday to today, Monday, and according to Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Murphy, it represents the busiest weekend for the airport since the same month in 2010.

“The August Bank Holiday weekend is the busiest weekend of the year and we had over 40,000 passengers come through the airport since Friday, which is our busiest weekend since the same period in 2010.

“There has been a fantastic buzz at the airport throughout the summer but particularly the past week or so.  We have 35 destinations at Shannon this year and we are seeing growth across all key markets, which was reflected across the weekend.”

He continued:  “One of the key growth areas in terms of inbound passengers and tourism in the region is transatlantic market, which is up by 6% in capacity this year, thanks to gains on our Philadelphia and Boston services in particular.

“The European and UK market is also strong and if you look at our figures for this weekend compared to recent years we are up, for example, by over 20% on 2013, which was the airport’s first year as an independent entity.

“The Wild Atlantic Way continues to be a huge success and, we believe, will continue to draw increased numbers year on year to the region.  Overall, both the inbound and outbound markets are continuing to grow and that’s good news for tourism across the west and south, for sun-holiday makers from Ireland and, indeed, for the airport itself.”

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