MidAmerica St. Louis Airport ^[1] got word this afternoon that Kenny Tours ^[2]will not be taking groups to Shannon ^[3], Ireland this summer. 
Deirdre Kenny, owner of Kenny Tours, Salisbury, Md., notified St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern and MidAmerica St. Louis Airport Manager Tim Cantwell earlier today.
Kenny identified several economic factors that caused the change in plans, particularly difficulty in securing a carrier, coupled with the weak dollar and increase in fuel costs. Last fall, Kenny Tours contacted tour operators in Ireland who had agreed to buy 25 percent of the seats for these flights; however, when it came time to confirm the agreement, the Irish tour operators dropped the commitment to 5 percent.

Without the original pre-sales, the flights were deemed to be financially risky. “We know the first two flights would’ve been totally sold out in the MidAmerica market and the follow on flights would have been close to that success quickly,” Kenny said.  “However, since we were delayed in securing the aircraft, we feel we missed the sales lead time for the product.  And, the price of gasoline soaring with the value of the dollar dropping didn’t give us a reasonable chance for total success.”

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport was one of three airports chosen for the Shannon flights. St. Clair County and the Tourism Bureau of Southwestern Illinois agreed to a joint marketing program for the Ireland flights, but only initial planning was involved before the decision was made to delay the program until next year.