Andreas Beckmann, the busy president of Microtherm International Corporation (MIC) has banned his company's private aircraft from using Shannon after what he describes as years of difficulty and recent "ludicrous" delays.

Joe Buckley, cargo and technical traffic development manager at Shannon, which won an award for being the best Irish airport in 2006, promised to personally contact Beckmann and address MIC's issues. Buckley told EBAN: "There is an already planned review of our corporate and business services with a view to introducing enhancements in 2008 that will be very positive for our business aviation users."

But Beckmann says MIC is examining the alternative of Cork and complains: "The time spent in Shannon airport to organise a complete go around for a business aircraft is now substantially longer than a return flight from Germany to Shannon and back again. This is totally unacceptable to us." Microtherm, he says, has had years of "negative experiences" at Shannon.

MIC, which operates worldwide in about 50 different countries, has flown into Shannon frequently for more than 20 years. But Beckmann says service has fallen from poor to unacceptable. "Time and flexibility are two of the most important arguments in favour of business aviation. It might be argued that security requirements make things difficult but we can tell you, from our experience of flying worldwide, that this has been resolved in other airports in an acceptable way. Shannon is by far the worst airport we have experienced and other business people have similar complaints."

Buckley says: "This type of complaint is most unusual. We have a good record and are very interested in developing private aircraft business here. We have excellent handlers and we would certainly be anxious to talk to any customer that is not happy and address their concerns. I will personally be contacting Mr. Beckmann."

MIC, whose fleet has been based on Cessnas such as the 340, 414 and 421, will probably move its business to Cork which is 54 nm from Shannon, Beckmann says. A large part of MIC's business involves thermostats. "If you have an electric appliance by law or for safety you have to have a thermostat," says Beckmann. In Ireland, MIC also operates a farming business and a factory. Beckmann, a pilot, travels eight to nine months a year, spending about 200 hours a year in private aircraft and many more hours on scheduled airlines for intercontinental flights. MIC is established in China, Brazil, the United States and Europe.

"In my experience small airports are generally quicker and more efficient. We want to quickly from the airport to the office." But he says the last trip to Shannon "was a horror. It took more than four hours to refuel." When a vacuum pump had to be replaced at Shannon, it took 35 minutes to fix but three-and-a-half hours to get the part to the aircraft. "That was ludicrous. The people on the ground try to be helpful but there are many rules and restrictions that they can't do anything about. The customs procedure is laborious. I wrote to Shannon about three years ago but things haven't improved at all."