asked the Minister for Transport and Power whether a licence has been issued to a company other than Aer Lingus to act as handling agent at Shannon; if so, under what conditions such licence was issued; whether all non-scheduled carriers have been requested or required by his Department to avail of the services of this handling agent; whether, in view of the unsatisfactory service received from this agent, some non-scheduled carriers expressed a wish to revert to the services of Aer Lingus, or, if this were not possible, to terminate their contract and overfly Shannon Airport; and if since the introduction of the licensed handling agency any non-scheduled carrier operating through Shannon has availed himself of services other than those provided by this agency.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shannon Airport Handling Agency.
As I indicated to the Deputy in reply to his Question on 12th April, 1962, proposals were at that time before me from Shannon Repair Services Ltd. for the provision at Shannon Airport of full scale engineering facilities for aircraft and of a limited amount of traffic handling, mainly for non-scheduled operations at the Airport. A licence to operate at Shannon Airport was issued to the company on 8th May, 1962.
The conditions attached to the licence are such as to ensure that a satisfactory standard of service is offered for both engineering and traffic handling services and that in the case of traffic handling the new company may provide such services only for carriers assigned to it by me. Deputies will appreciate that it would not be appropriate to give exact details of the licence which is in the nature of a commercial contract.
Widespread publication to all interested parties as to the division of traffic handling services between Aer Lingus and Shannon Repair Services Ltd., was given in a Civil Aviation Bulletin issued by my Department on 3rd May, 1962 and carriers operating non-scheduled service were advised specifically of the new arrangements.
I have no information that the services being rendered by Shannon Repair Services Ltd. are unsatisfactory. I am not prepared to give details of the private business arrangements of the carriers using Shannon Airport.
The establishment of two traffic handling organisations at Shannon was sanctioned by me in the interest of Shannon Airport since there were definite prospects that the establishment of the additional engineering services in conjunction with traffic handling by Shannon Repair Services would attract additional traffic to the Airport. It is too early as yet to say whether this aim will be realised.
Are both these companies to which the Minister referred State companies?
Aer Lingus is one of the companies; Shannon Repair Services is a private company.
And has got no facilities by way of grants from the Minister?
No grants.
And none from the Minister's colleague next door?
No.