Airport Marketing Strategies: Examining the Changing Marketing Strategies of Shannon Airport

Airport Marketing Strategies:

Examining the changing marketing strategies of Shannon Airport.

Why the author chose this research topic.

Shannon Airport gained its independence from the Dublin Airport Authority (daa) on the 1st January 2013 after being part of a larger entity for 44 years. Prior to separation, Shannon Airport’s passenger output had been in an annual decline for the previous five years, falling from a high of 3.6m passengers in 2007 to 1.39m passengers in 2012.  (www.daa.ie)

Shannon International Airport was established in the late 1930’s as a transit refuelling stop for transatlantic flights, which at the time were unable to make the journey non-stop to Europe from the USA. Its strategic geographical location was a distinct advantage during this time, however, with technological advancements in aviation, the airport faced many threats to its very existence. To survive in the aviation industry Shannon Airport adopted innovative and flexible approaches to changes in its operating environment. To this end it has developed tourist attractions around its hinterland, opened the first Duty Free shop in the world, was the first to develop an industrial and economic free zone, and more recently, was the first to establish a permanent US Preclearance facility in Europe.

Since its independence Shannon Airport has arrested the decline in its overall business by growing its level of airline services and passenger volumes. The author thought it would be an interesting topic to analyse so as to determine how Shannon Airport has become more successful since gaining its independence. Through research the author will analyse what, if any, innovative marketing strategies were adopted by the airport in achieving this success and compare and contrast those strategies with other European airports.

Research Questions.

The author will aim to establish what Shannon Airport did differently to achieve success in such a short time frame and why this could not have been achieved when Shannon was part of the larger daa group. This will be achieved by;

1. Examining the changes in Shannon Airport’s organisational structure since gaining independence from the daa.
2. Examining the changes that Shannon Airport have made to their marketing strategies since becoming independent through observation and primary research.
3. Examining existing strategies employed by airports across Europe through existing literature.
4. Comparing Shannon Airport’s marketing strategies to those of other regional airports across Europe.

Literature Review

Airports, like any other business, depend on their customers, who in this case are the airlines and their passengers, for their survival. There are clearly two distinct and separate marketing strategies to be employed when dealing with different sets of customers and ‘a common way of doing this is to distinguish between “Consumer” and “Industrial” marketing’ (Shaw 2002 p1, 2). Shaw further clarifies “Industrial” marketing as the term to describe ‘business-to-business or firm-to firm marketing’.

The literature review will aim to discuss and present issues that are relevant to the ongoing development of an airport’s customer base i.e. airlines and passengers. It will investigate some of the issues outlined below to gain an understanding of the variances between the “Consumer” and “Industrial” marketing strategies which Shannon adopted to achieve its success, so that the author can answer the research aims and objectives highlighted above.

(1)        What did the airport do to make an airline service available for its customers i.e. what strategies did it adopt to convince the airlines to serve Shannon?

(2)        How did the airport influence its consumers to actively support and utilise the services now provided by the airlines i.e. what different marketing strategies were employed?

Identifying the changing marketing strategy adopted by Shannon Airport post its independence will be compared to the standard custom and practice of other European airports in relation to marketing both on a Business to Business level and a consumer approach.

To examine existing strategies employed by airports across Europe through existing literature