Lift-off for Inaugural Vienna flight from Shannon
Tuesday 1st July 2020: Scheduled passenger services resumed today at Shannon Airport with the first of sixteen Ryanair services taking off including the inaugural service to Vienna. Two other services to Lanzarote and Manchester resumed today with other services recommencing in the coming days.
All sixteen Ryanair flights to European destinations will be operational from this week. Other services resuming from Shannon are; Alicante, Barcelona-Reus, Faro, Fuerteventura, Kaunas, Krakow, London-Gatwick, London-Stansted, Malaga, Palma, Tenerife, Warsaw and Wroclaw.
Welcoming the return of air services at Shannon, Mary Considine, CEO, Shannon Group said: “Today is an important day not just for Shannon Airport, but for our customers including the tourism businesses and Irish, domestic and FDI companies who rely heavily on our air services. Today marks the slow but encouraging start to the economic recovery for the airport and the region.
“Shannon Airport has remained open throughout the pandemic and I am proud of the role our staff played in facilitating vital PPE cargo flights.
“Over the past few weeks we have been putting Covid-19 measures in place at the airport so that our passengers can feel confident and comfortable. It was great to see passengers heeded the airport’s advice, in particular the wearing face coverings.
“I am happy to say that the first passengers have reported their satisfaction with the new health and safety measures introduced and with the ease of getting around the airport,” said Ms. Considine.
Among these were John O’Connor from Limerick City on his way to holiday in Lanzarote who described his experience at the airport in the new Covid-19 environment saying: “It was pleasant, and it was just the formality of the mask and hygiene which is a good idea. It was a good experience.”
Also travelling was Lanzarote native Melanie Perez Martin who was returning home after Au Pairing with the O’Dwyer family in Killaloe/Ballina area. “I’ve been in Ireland for nine months and was last home at Christmas, so I am really looking forward to seeing my family,” she said.
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Notes to Editors:
Over 4,000 pieces of COVID-19 signage have been installed on route to the airport and inside the terminal building. Multiple sanitiser dispensers and special hand sanitation stations, along with disinfectant wipes have been installed throughout the airport starting at the entry doors. In addition to its normal cleaning services, the airport has introduced specialised COVID-19 deep cleaning and sanitisation services. Shannon Airport strongly advises all passengers bring and wear a face covering when inside the airport terminal building.
Protective glass screens have been erected at key customer facing areas throughout the terminal building including at check-in, all customer service desks, security screening areas, retail and at boarding gates.
The two-metre social distancing guidelines have been implemented throughout with floor signage. Public seating has been reconfigured to ensure observation of the two-metre protocol with stickers on seats which will be left vacant to ensure social distancing.
The airport’s Public Address System will incorporate social distancing reminders for passengers which will be repeated at regular intervals.
The measures reflect the national COVID-19 Health Service Executive (HSE) guidelines and government code of practice guidelines for Air Passengers taking on board the best practice guidelines developed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
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