Less than 15 months after Shannon Airport was made independent, the airport will enjoy its biggest week in almost a decade in terms of new route start-ups as Ryanair launches new services to Munich, Paris, Faro, Warsaw, Krakow, Nice, Poitiers, Berlin, and Fuerteventura, while Aer Lingus Regional commences a new Bristol service. 
The 2014 summer season, which officially begins in April, will see 16 service enhancements at Shannon, including the nine new routes. Among the enhanced services is the now year-round Aer Lingus New York service that commenced on Sunday 30th March. This will be a six times weekly service and is the first time Aer Lingus will have operated year-round on New York since 2009.
Aer Lingus also yesterday started a new twice-weekly Malaga service, which will add to the significantly expanded European network to and from the airport this year.
Neil Pakey, Chief Executive, said that the coming five days are very encouraging for Shannon: “This week is a turning point for Shannon. Not since 2005 has Shannon had a week like this in terms of new routes starting up and we see this as a real reward for the loyalty of our passengers across Ireland. They now have excellent choice from Shannon with 37 attractive destinations in Europe, the UK and North America.”
Rose Hynes, Shannon Airport Chairman, said that the airport is now offering a level of connectivity that is crucial from an inbound and outbound tourism and business perspective: “Shannon Airport is a catalyst for growth for a region that stretches from Cork right up to the North West. We are the only airport across this region with transatlantic services and we worked particularly hard on developing that part of our business in 2013.
“We are delighted that this has paid off with new routes and improved connectivity. The next step for us was to grow our European route network and this week sees our efforts here bearing fruit. We listened to what our customers had to say and, with our airline partners, have delivered new services to nine great destinations. These new routes also connect us with destinations that have a strong inbound market and this presents a great opportunity for tourism here on the West Coast.”
