Vol. 407 No. 6
201 Mr. Cosgrave asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications if, in view of the capability of East European aircraft to fly direct from Moscow to New York, Miami, Montreal and Chicago, he will outline the plans Aer Rianta and Shannon Development have in order to further promote Shannon Airport in the event of Aeroflot overflying Shannon; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
On the basis of recent discussions between my Department and Aeroflot, I have no reason to believe that Aeroflot have any plans to reduce their operations at Shannon Airport for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, I understand that Aeroflot plan to increase, rather than reduce, the number of services operated through Shannon.
To further encourage these developments, I have recently granted rights to Aeroflot to operate services on a fifth freedom basis between Shannon and Gander, Miami and Washington and those services have already commenced between Shannon and Washington and Shannon and Miami.
