Ireland
Airport Guides

Operating Detail

Irish airport briefings

The crossing notes behind the airport choice, written by the desk that files the preclearance.

Operating into Ireland

What is different about flying a private jet into Ireland

Ireland is the last stop before the Atlantic, and for business aviation it is one airport. Shannon is open 24 hours, has customs and immigration on the field at every hour, is not slot coordinated, needs no prior permission, and has the only United States preclearance facility for private aircraft outside the Americas. Dublin and Cork carry the scheduled traffic and the finance and pharmaceutical travel that goes with it; the westbound crossing goes through Shannon. Ireland is in the Common Travel Area with the United Kingdom and outside Schengen, so every arrival from the Continent is a passport control, and it runs on Greenwich Mean Time in winter and Irish Standard Time in summer, UTC+0 and UTC+1.

No landing permit is needed for private or charter operations from the European Union, the United Kingdom or the United States, and the Irish Aviation Authority publishes the field data in the AIP that the desk checks before every trip. Shannon has a single 10,495 foot runway at 46 feet elevation with Category 9 fire cover from 0600 to 2200 UTC and Category 7 overnight, three handlers on the field, and Jet A-1 at all hours with prior notice for operators without a standing arrangement. The airport asks for an Aircraft Fleet Declaration Form electronically before an airframe first arrives, which it uses to calculate runway and parking charges.

Preclearance is the reason to route through Shannon. Crew and passengers are examined by US Customs and Border Protection officers before departure and the flight arrives in the United States as a domestic arrival at the specific airport approved for it, which need not be a port of entry. The general aviation service runs 09:00 to 17:00 local time daily with extended hours on request, needs a minimum of 24 hours notice and eAPIS filed at least 24 hours before departure, and takes about 45 to 50 minutes on the ground for everyone together. A late change to the passenger list is the usual reason a booking fails.

The constraint that catches crews out is the arrival airport. A precleared flight is cleared to one named airport, so the United States destination must be settled when the preclearance is booked, not when the aircraft is airborne, and a diversion means clearing again on arrival. The other is the clock: the preclearance hours are local, the fire cover and the AIP are in UTC, and the crossing lands five to eight hours behind, so the desk files everything in UTC and confirms local times back at both ends.

Send the dates, the aircraft, the passenger list and the United States destination as early as you have them, with the CBP decal number and the aircraft documents. The desk books the preclearance and the handler together, files eAPIS and the general declaration, arranges the fuel, holds a stand, and confirms the approved arrival airport with the trip. Eastbound, Shannon is the fuel stop before Europe with no permit and no slot; westbound, it is the last passport control before the United States.

Facts checked against the Irish AIP published by AirNav Ireland, the airport guide above and Icarus Jet operations data.