CLARE County Councillor Patricia McCarthy was holidaying in France this time last year when she received a phone call from a friend telling her of a rumour going around back home that Aer Lingus was to pull out of its four-times-daily, profit-making Shannon-Heathrow route.
"I didn't believe it at first, how could you?" says the Shannon resident, who was Mayor of Clare at the time.
"I spent the next two days trying to figure out if there was any truth to it and I was absolutely flabbergasted when the announcement came. It didn't make sense, it still doesn't.
"A year has gone by and the effects of this decision are plain for all to see in the declining passenger numbers and the slump in industry and commerce. I've never been a defeatist about Shannon though and I still think the airport has a potentially prosperous future if we sell it properly."
While the former mayor of the town maintains her optimism, one could be forgiven for believing the predictions that Shannon airport will soon become Ireland's third largest airport behind Cork and will be battling for its survival before long.
In an interview recently with Irish Entrepeneur magazine, Pádraig O' Céidigh of Aer Arann said that Shannon now has such a narrow customer base that the airport and the economy of the Mid-West is at serious risk. The airline's founder went on to say that the airport's reliance on revenue from a small number of sources could ultimately lead to its closure.
"In the past two years seven airlines have pulled out of Shannon. When American troops pull out of Iraq, resulting in no more stop-offs, there's a real threat to the survival of the Airport," said Mr O'Céidigh.
The editor of Irish Entrepreneur, Maree Morrissey, agreed with his sentiment, saying that Shannon Airport was "rapidly moving towards a situation where all our eggs will be in the one basket, where an apparently competitive environment could quickly deteriorate into a dangerous monopoly."
Ryanair chief executive – and undoubtedly the main shareholder of the aforementioned egg basket - Michael O'Leary recently made Shannon's future seem even more precarious.
The low cost airline boss said that his company was only living off the earnings of sandwiches and luggage charges at Shannon.
"I'm not known for hanging around losing money. Shannon is one of only two bases where we lost money and we have lost money every year for the past three years. Why do we do it? It is part of our commitment to Ireland," O'Leary told the Dail Transport Committee.
O'Leary's "commitment" would appear to be genuine for now, judging by Ryanair's co-operation with local businesses in trying to boost the number of travellers coming to the Mid-West.
Shannon Development announced this week that it is working with the airline and the Irish Hotels Federation on a €500,000 tourism advertising campaign destined for the UK market. A €200,000 UK TV ad campaign was also undertaken between Shannon Development, Shannon Airport and Tourism Ireland, which reached an audience of over 20m people.
A deal has also been struck in the US market between Shannon Development and a number of airlines and tourism operators to encourage visitors to stay for additional nights in the region. A spokesman for Shannon Development said one such campaign had already resulted in 20,000 additional overnight stays in the region from the US this year alone.
Such figures are impressive, particularly when one considers the roadblock presented by the weakened US dollar when trying to entice American tourists to these shores.
America's inevitable withdrawal from Iraq will also take a large chunk of Shannon Airport's revenue as the weekly stop-over of up to 1,000 US troops could no longer be counted upon. If the winner of this year's presidential election is Barack Obama, who incidentally had a stop-over of his own in Shannon in recent weeks, then that withdrawal is expected to happen sooner rather than later.
But all is not gloom and promoters of the airport point to an addition to immigration services at Shannon Airport in the coming months that will attract further American airlines and visitors to the region, thus reducing the airport's reliance on the custom of Ryanair and the US military.
Local aviation expert, Dermot Walsh, says that the introduction of a full Customs and Border Protection service in Shannon could yet reap dividends for the airport. Shannon currently has US border pre-clearance services, allowing US-bound passengers to have their paperwork dealt with before departure.
"Shannon's strength is in its transatlantic flights and the extension of the pre-clearance service at the airport in April will mean more options for American airlines flying out of the country. It will mean they won't have to fly into the international terminal when landing at their airport in the US. Instead they will have a choice of a few different terminals, which makes flying from Shannon a lot more attractive to these airlines.
"Shannon will have the full Customs and Border Protection service a full year before Dublin so you could see airlines more inclined to run a service from here rather than wait a full year for Dublin to catch up. Cork is obviously catching up with Shannon but the one area Cork can't touch is the transatlantic flights because the airport is built on a hill and its runways are too short."
Mr Walsh added that the future for Shannon Airport is not as dependant on European flights as some may think as the market for such flights is crowded and he believes the number of passengers travelling to Europe will decrease.
"Everyone's competing for flights to Europe but it's a declining market in Ireland. Because of the recession you're not going to have as many people going on midweek breaks to the continent or as many stag parties going abroad for a few days. Michael O'Leary has threatened to pull out of Shannon if the charges there are increased but as it stands the airport are almost paying him.
"Shannon, like any other business, needs to focus on its strength and that is the transatlantic flights. When the Customs and Border Protection is introduced in April, Shannon will have a service that no other airport in the country can offer, that could yet prove to be a powerful advantage over the competition."
Echoing Mr Walsh's sentiment, President of Limerick Chamber of Commerce, Sean Lally said the introduction of CBP at Shannon Airport is one of the biggest business opportunities the region has had in many years.
"Shannon airport has always been unique in that it was the first to introduce Duty Free and the tax-free zone. Bringing in CBP could potentially open up huge markets for us, particularly with private aircraft and cargo carriers. It's a fantastic opportunity and one that Limerick Chamber of Commerce has been supportive of all along," said Mr Lally.
"By 2010, we will have a dual carriageway from Shannon to Dublin and to Galway. With that kind of infrastructure in place, personally I think the airport has a fantastic future."
Naturally, the Chamber president retains an optimistic outlook, but given the fickle nature of the aviation industry and the slings and arrows Shannon has already suffered, it remains to be seen whether the airport can work its headstart on CBP to its advantage. The skies ahead are not clear yet.