US AIRWAYS HAS announced a new daily flight between Philadelphia and Shannon Airport, which will commence on 23 May 2013 and operate until 3September 2013.
Tourism Ireland has welcomed the announcement, saying the service “will help boost both leisure and business tourism from the all-important US market to Shannon and to the west of Ireland”.
This is the third route for 2013 to be added from the US to island of Ireland in the last month. United recently announced a new flight from Chicago to Shannon and American Airlines announced a new daily service from JFK, New York to Dublin.
Niall Gibbons, CEO of Tourism Ireland, described the route as “yet another wonderful boost for tourism to the island of Ireland from the US”.
The United States is a tremendously important tourism market, second only to Britain in terms of delivering visitor numbers. The US market is performing very well this year, with visitor numbers up +21 per cent for the month of September alone; and with the addition of these new routes, we have the opportunity to welcome more Americans than ever.
Hoteliers in the Shannon region have also welcomed the decision by US Airways to launch the non-stop service following an absence of four years on the route. The service is expected to provide an additional 30,000 passengers through 2013.
Seán Lally, of the Shannon Branch of the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) said the service will generate significant opportunities to grow overseas visitor numbers from the US.
Lally noted that the airport’s ability to expand services will be much enhanced by its accelerated separation from the Dublin Airport Authority at the end of year with a new commercially-focused and integrated approach to attracting new air services into the region.
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