Air passengers using Shannon Airport endure the least amount of airport delays in the West of Ireland, according to a survey on punctuality from Irish airports travelling to England.

The figures, which have been published by the British Civil Aviation Authority for February 2008, showed that Shannon Airport had an average delay of just nine minutes per flight over some 460 flights into selected English airports for the same month.

Shannon Airport Director, Mr Martin Moroney, said that punctuality of flights is essential to passengers and not least on English routes.

"The reality is that a lot of people flying into London and other UK cities do so for business meetings and it is extremely important that they can depend on this type of reliability and punctuality. A recent survey we did ourselves showed that convenience and ease of access to our airport is as important as low fares and we are delighted, of course, to be scoring so highly on punctuality as well," Mr Moroney said.

The figures show that the average delay of just nine minutes was an increase of two minutes on the same figure for last year but an improvement on the 11-minute average delay over the entire year last year.

Figures for the fourth quarter in 2007 also show that of the top 75 destinations surveyed that have flights into selected British airports, that Shannon Airport was fourth best in terms of punctuality with 82% of flights on time, behind Guernsey, Luton and Leeds.

The February figures, however, place Shannon Airport as joint best in the punctuality stakes in the West of Ireland with Ireland West Airport in Knock, both of which have an average delay of just nine minutes and trailed by Galway (23-mins) and Kerry (26-mins). However, a spokesperson said that the average delay at Shannon Airport is enhanced by the number of flights (460) to UK airports surveyed compared to Galway (305), Knock (277) and Kerry (116).

"Needless to say we are very happy with this and it is a tribute to the combined efforts of our staff working here at Shannon Airport and, indeed, staff on the various airlines as well. Punctuality is important to us and we intend to do what we can to not alone maintain this high level of punctuality but also improve on it," Martin Moroney added.

"In a difficult trading time for the aviation industry, you need to make sure you provide passengers with the best possible service and it is our intention to build on this high standard," he said.

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