Editing Shannon Airport (section)

=== Independent operation, 2012 to present ===
[[File:Shannon Airport and Free Zone.png|thumbnail|Map of the airport]]
[[File:Shannon Airport - Terminal and control tower - geograph.org.uk - 1637715.jpg|thumb|right|[[Control tower]] at Shannon Airport]]
In December 2012, it was announced that Shannon Airport would separate from the [[Dublin Airport Authority]], which still owns Dublin and Cork airports. On 31 December 2012 at 11:59&nbsp;pm, Shannon Airport became a publicly owned commercial airport and is now operated and run by the Shannon Airport Authority plc. Shannon announced a target in 2012 to grow its passenger numbers to 2.5 million annually within five years. However, Shannon has fallen short of its stated targeted figure with just 1.74 million flying through the airport in 2017.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/shannon-group-falls-short-of-targets-set-five-years-ago-1.3394947|title=Shannon Group falls short of targets set five years ago|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |access-date=6 April 2019|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109035135/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/shannon-group-falls-short-of-targets-set-five-years-ago-1.3394947|url-status=live}}</ref>

In March 2013, the new company appointed [[Neil Pakey]] as its first CEO. Traffic figures for June 2013 report an 8% increase on the previous year, the first time a traffic increase has been recorded in three years. On 21 March 2013, [[Ryanair]] announced a new twice-weekly route to [[Alicante]], Spain, to begin on 5 June for the summer months. That brought Shannon's total to 33 seasonal scheduled summer routes. In August 2013, Aer Lingus announced a 1x weekly service to [[Lanzarote]], [[Canary Islands]], Spain, every Saturday during the winter months, using an A320. In October 2013, United Airlines confirmed it will increase capacity by 88% on its Shannon-Chicago route for 2014.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} In late 2013, Aer Lingus announced 2 new routes to [[Málaga]], Spain, (two weekly) and to [[Bristol]], UK, (one daily). Ryanair also announced 8 new routes from Shannon to continental Europe. The new routes began from the start of April 2014, and a second Boeing 737-800 was based at Shannon to accommodate the extra 300,000 passengers a year it would bring in. The destinations announced were [[Berlin Schönefeld Airport|Berlin Schonefeld]], [[Beauvais–Tillé Airport|Beauvais]], [[Memmingen Airport|Memmingen]], [[Warsaw Modlin Airport|Warsaw Modlin]], [[Kraków John Paul II International Airport|Kraków]], [[Nice Côte d'Azur Airport|Nice]], [[Faro Airport|Faro]], and [[Fuerteventura Airport|Fuerteventura]].

On 4 July 2014, the "Bank of Ireland Runway Night Run" featured 1,200 people running along Shannon's runway to raise money for charity.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bank of Ireland Runway Night Run|url=http://www.shannonairport.ie/gns/about-us/BankOfIrelandRunwayNightRun.aspx|access-date=28 July 2014|publisher=Shannon Airport|date=5 July 2014|archive-date=1 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140701053314/http://www.shannonairport.ie/gns/about-us/BankOfIrelandRunwayNightRun.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>

In late 2014, Aer Lingus Regional operator [[Stobart Air]] said that they would close their Shannon base in early 2015. They returned in June 2015 operating six flights weekly Birmingham service followed by six flights weekly [[Edinburgh]] service. In late 2015, they announced a new CEO for Shannon, Matthew Thomas. Ryanair announced that it will be ending its Paris and Memmingen routes in late 2016, and it also reduced its [[Manchester]] and [[London Stansted]] routes. Ryanair is aiming for 720,000 passengers in Summer 2017 even though they were close to 800,000 in Summer 2016. In October 2016, SAS announced a new route to Stockholm from 1 August 2017 to 7 October 2017. Shortly after that, [[Lufthansa]] announced a weekly service to Frankfurt, running from April to October in 2017. In September 2017, Ryanair announced a new Route to Reus. It will run through summer 2018 operating 2x weekly (Tuesdays and Saturdays), replacing the route to Berlin. The same day, Air Canada announced a new 4x weekly service to Toronto with the [[Boeing 737 MAX]]. In February 2018, Ryanair announced it would resume flights to Bristol and Liverpool from May 2018. In late 2018, Ryanair announced a new twice weekly service to Ibiza, and the resumption of flights to East Midlands, both beginning in April 2019. The East Midlands, Bristol and Ibiza flights are all being ceased at the end of the 2019 summer season due to fears of Brexit and the 737 MAX groundings.{{citation needed |date=October 2019}} Due to the 737 MAX groundings, Air Canada and Norwegian Airlines suspended their routes to Shannon. This reduced the number of passenger by 120,000.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/shannon-region-may-lose-58m-due-to-grounding-of-boeing-737-max-1.3957368 |title=Shannon region may lose €58m due to grounding of Boeing 737 Max |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |access-date=14 November 2021 |archive-date=6 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506035952/https://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/shannon-region-may-lose-58m-due-to-grounding-of-boeing-737-max-1.3957368 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 23 October 2019, Lauda announced that they will launch a twice weekly flight to Shannon from their base in Vienna, operating every Wednesday and Saturday.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hospitalityireland.com/general-industry/lauda-announces-new-route-shannon-vienna-81741 |title=Lauda Announces New Route Between Shannon And Vienna |date=24 October 2019 |access-date=14 November 2021 |archive-date=14 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114215235/https://www.hospitalityireland.com/general-industry/lauda-announces-new-route-shannon-vienna-81741 |url-status=live }}</ref> The airport handled 1,864,762 passengers in 2018. This number is the highest passenger numbers since gaining independence from the DAA.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.clare.fm/news/aviation/shannon-group-logs-pre-tax-profits-e12-7-million-2018/ |title=Shannon Group Logs Pre-Tax Profits Of €12.7 Million In 2018 |date=30 April 2019 |access-date=14 November 2021 |archive-date=14 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114221601/https://www.clare.fm/news/aviation/shannon-group-logs-pre-tax-profits-e12-7-million-2018/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.shannon-airport.com/ |title=Shannon Airport (SNN) |access-date=14 November 2021 |archive-date=14 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114221610/https://www.shannon-airport.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>