At the helm of The Shannon Airport Group stands its chief executive officer, Mary Considine, whose secret power is seeing opportunities where others see problems.
Innovation is at the heart of The Shannon Airport Group and how Mary conducts business. For example, Shannon Airport was the first in Ireland to introduce high tech scanners, allowing it to lift the ban on liquids over 100ml. And laptops and tablets no longer have to be separately screened but can remain in passengers’ bags.
Mary explains that when the pandemic came about, they looked at their unique selling point – the customer experience – and set about raising the bar even further. “We could have battened down the hatches, but instead we looked at ways of giving ourselves the edge when things would open up again,” she says.
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“One of our slogans for the airport is ‘Making it easy’, so we put a team together to look at how we could do things better for our customers. One of the projects that came out of that was upgrading our screening equipment so that you don’t need to take out liquids, gels and laptops going through security. This not only makes the whole process of going through security smoother, but it speeds up the queue times and makes it a more pleasant experience for passengers.
“We looked at the entire journey, from arriving in the car park to going through security, into our retail shops, food and beverage. Then obviously through security for those going on to the States, we also removed an additional security check by combining TSA and EU security measures. So unlike other airports, if you’re flying to the States, you don’t have to go through a second security search in Shannon.”
An accountant by profession, Mary has a long history with Shannon Airport, starting her career when it was run by Aer Rianta and later DAA. In 2012, she headed up the project to establish a separate airport group, Shannon Airport Authority. In 2014, she was part of the team that formed a new commercial semi-state body, The Shannon Airport Group, bringing together the airport, the property portfolio of Shannon development and Shannon heritage, plus a cluster of aviation groups in the area. Mary held a number of senior roles in that organisation including company secretary, chief financial officer, and deputy CEO before taking over the CEO role in October 2019.
Taking over the management of an airport just months before the global pandemic locked down international travel might be most people’s idea of being handed a poisoned chalice, but Mary’s glass half-full philosophy stood her in good stead. “I was both fortunate and unfortunate,” she explains. “I had a deep knowledge of the business having held a number of senior roles prior to taking over as CEO, so I was able to hit the ground running.
“When we were faced with an unprecedented crisis, the worst ever to hit the aviation sector, having a strong team that I was well familiar with, made all the difference. It was very much about taking decisive actions and making tough calls to stabilise the business, to preserve cash and to protect as much employment as we could. We had just done work on our core values in the group – the four Ps, and one of those was perseverance. That was something we absolutely needed to preserve and power through it.”
The other three Ps at the core of the business include people, partnership and pride. And there’s a real sense of pride at The Shannon Airport Group, according to Mary, who attributes that and having to think outside the box for their success.
“Innovation has been at the heart of Shannon Airport,” she says. “We’re not the capital city, we don’t have a huge population base in our catchment area, we’re positioned between Galway and Limerick, the third and fourth largest cities. So we always have to be creative and innovative and continue to be.
“We had the first sensory room in Europe. And what that means is people with special needs have that quiet space where they can relax. It just takes away the stress and the fear of travelling for some people. Last year, we were awarded the World Health Organisation status for an age-friendly airport. It’s important to make it easier for our ageing population to navigate through the airport. These are all things that we have done to differentiate ourselves as a people-friendly airport.”
Duty free shopping
In 1947, Shannon launched the world’s first ever Duty Free shopping with airports worldwide soon following their lead. Duty Free is still at the core of their business.
“We are very fortunate to have so many talented indigenous suppliers creating the finest products across skincare, giftware and food and beverages here in Ireland,” adds Mary. “With that, we actively seek local craftspeople and produce to showcase the best of Irish in our Duty Free store in the oldest Duty Free in the world. It’s wonderful for us to have these products on offer for our passengers, so they can bring ‘a taste of home’ with them wherever they go, but it also allows us to support these local producers, and showcase their produce to an international audience.”
Sustainability is at the core of the business, which was recently awarded Airport Carbon Accreditation Level 2 by the ACI (Airport Council International), in acknowledgement of the airport’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint and make its operations greener. The CEO believes that a more sustainable type of fuel for aircraft is inevitable.
“Shannon is involved in a project, which is the first of its kind in Ireland that would include hydrogen refuelling and battery electric vehicle charging,” Mary continues. “This is in line with the EU’s desire to have a hydrogen refuelling station every 100km along the Trans-European Transport Network by 2028. We’re looking at opportunities with significant floating offshore wind on the Atlantic. If that energy is brought onshore, there will be opportunities to produce sustainable aviation and we will be part of it.
“We’re an island nation, we need to get people in and out of the country, and 90% of our visitors come by air. We have to work with various partners to find solutions to decarbonise aviation. Today’s aircraft can take sustainable aviation fuel, blended with Jet A1, so that’s the first step. It’s expensive now but we have an abundance of green energy, with the Atlantic, off our coast so that is an opportunity.”
When Mary Considine first started working with Shannon Airport in 1990, did she ever think she would be responsible for turning it into an international success story, running an innovative airport with a staff of 400 and supporting a business cluster with a workforce of 10,000? “Being honest, no. My focus was always on doing a really good job, I’ve been very fortunate in my career, whatever door opened, I took that opportunity.
“I worked from early on, if there was a project going on, or something happening, I was stuck in it and you learn from that. Some really talented people had confidence in me, and trusted me with opportunities. That’s got me to where I am today. That, plus coming from a farming background, I’m the eldest of seven. So there was always a very strong work ethic in the family. And I suppose there was always that kind of self-belief that you can do anything you put your mind to.”
Mary may have her mother to thank for landing a top job in the aviation industry, which would have traditionally been seen as a male dominated industry, as she ensured that her daughters didn’t grow up with any male stereotyping.
“My mother farmed although my dad worked on it too,” Mary explains. “It was typical of farms in West Clare, you needed an income coming into the house as well, if you had a big family.
“We were dairy farmers initially, but it’s dry stock now. There’s six girls and one boy, so we just had to muck in and do whatever needed to be done. That broke down barriers from a very early age and is probably something that has helped me in my career, because aviation is still quite male-dominated.
“I encourage more women into the roles that would have been seen as more male dominated because both genders are equally capable of doing the work that needs to be done.”
Shaping the future
Her many achievements include moulding the airport and the group to being the master of its own destiny and shaping the strategy for its future; reversing five years of passenger decline and building airline partnerships to significantly grow traffic; and attracting new business to
the area and developing a reputation for innovation. But the CEO still has a lot on her agenda.
“We don’t have adequate public transport,” she says. “We have bus services, but we have been lobbying for an improvement in the bus connectivity to the airport and in order to realise the opportunities for this airport and region in the longer term, we need rail connectivity into the airport. In the short term, we need better public transport, which means
better bus access to the airport, in line with trying to encourage people on public transport to help meet our climate action targets.”
Managing an aviation career and family life presents no problem for the mum-of-three. “Earlier in my career, I would have put in very long hours, which probably gave me the opportunity to move up the ladder,” she says.
“But now it’s very much about having a really good team, trusting in that team, supporting them, backing them and challenging them, if required.
“My youngest is 11 so I’m still at the side of the hurling and football pitch. I live near the beautiful Wild Atlantic Way and close to my home there’s lovely walks into the woodland areas, so I’m very fortunate.”
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