Does anyone have an opinion about which airport is better to fly into?

Where are you flying from, and what's your destination in Ireland?

I've always flown in and out of Shannon. The Northwest and Southwest of Ireland are the greatest as far as I am concerned. Dublin is just another big city.

JGR - I ask only because from the US Aer Lingus does some strange routes, such as going Chicago-Dublin-Shannon rather than Chi-Snn-Dub, which would seem to make more sense.<BR><BR>Unlike Mike, I love Dublin and that is usually my destination, however the duty free is fun at Shannon. Neither have any amenities to really sway me one way or the other, and both are much smaller than international airports I've been to in other places in Europe and the US.

Just as far as airports go, I prefer Shannon to Dublin, which is a big mess. Lines from different flights often end up crossing into each other, and you spend half your time hurtling luggage.<BR><BR>But it's really all about where you want to go in Ireland. It's a toss up as to location between the two.

More people need to go to Dublin. The Irish government used to require that all flight fly to Shannon. In recent years, they've allowed half of the flights to land in Dublin but half of the scheduled flights must land in Shannon first.<BR><BR>The Irish government wants to support the Shannon area. This would be similar to if the US government required half of the European flights to land in Bangor, Maine first in order to help the Bangorese people.<BR><BR>The Irish policy hurts Aer Lingus. If Aer Lingus were allowed to develop a strong hub in Dublin, people might fly Boston Dublin Brussels, say instead of another airline. The way it is now, the frequency of flights to Dublin is less because of Shannon.