asked the Minister for Transport and Power whether his attention has been drawn to reports of an incident at Shannon Airport where passengers of a KLM plane which had stopped at Shannon for a period of forty minutes were not permitted by the company to land and make purchases in the duty-free shop, or to take advantage of the catering and other amenities at the airport; whether he is aware that the catering and other workers at the airport have protested strongly about this incident; whether he has investigated the exact circumstances of what in fact occurred; what were the results of such investigation; and whether he will take steps to ensure that all passengers landing for a reasonable period of time at the Airport are permitted to alight from their aircraft and make purchases, or avail themselves of other amenities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Shannon Airport Transit Passengers.
I am aware that a charter flight operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and carrying 103 passengers landed at Shannon Airport on 12th March, 1963. Since the inception of jet aircraft, the refuelling time has been substantially reduced and international airport practice is to allow passengers to remain aboard during refuelling, subject to certain safety precautions. These precautions were carried out in this case.
It is a matter for the airline concerned to decide whether or not passengers should be allowed to disembark in any particular instance. In this case, I understand that the captain of the aircraft decided that the time at his disposal was insufficient to allow the passengers to disembark.
I am not aware of any protest by workers at the airport nor do I think that a protest would be justified. An airline cannot be forced by an aviation or airport authority to allow passengers to disembark, if all relevant regulations are observed. I am, however, asking the airline concerned for clarification of their policy in this matter.
I should point out, however, that the flight in question was a charter flight and that no difficulties arose in relation to the KLM scheduled flights during 1962. Scheduled flights will be resumed for the summer of 1963.
Is the Minister not aware, and has it not been brought to his attention in the past, that people have been refused permission to leave planes while standing on the tarmac at Shannon Airport for as long as threequarters of an hour? Is the Minister also aware that up to 60 people have become redundant in the sales and catering department at Shannon recently and that in view of the precarious position in which Shannon and its workers stand at present, every effort should be made to encourage visits and purchases in the sales and catering department? Is the Minister prepared, as far as his authority goes, if he has any authority in this matter, to encourage sales and catering at Shannon Airport?
I have already indicated the position. We cannot compel aircraft to discharge passengers at Shannon Airport and it would be most inadvisable for me to try to do anything more than make the best arrangements I can. In relation to a recent period of seven months, the last period for which I have a report, there were only 11 cases of landings of aircraft where passengers were not permitted to go to the shopping area and of those, six were non-scheduled flights. The best we can do is to continue to encourage the goodwill of the companies concerned.
Is the Minister aware that it is alleged that some of the flights, the passengers from which were not permitted to go to the shopping area, were those of Irish International Airlines?
Irish International Airlines do all they can to facilitate passengers to go there.