In the late 1950s,
Shannon Airport was dependent on transit passengers and refuelling for trans-Atlantic flights. With indicators that commercial aircraft would soon have the range to bypass the airport, the airport's then director,
Brendan O'Regan, submitted a proposal for a special manufacturing and tax incentive zone to be created in the vicinity of the airport. This would create employment and promote Shannon Airport as a destination for air traffic in itself. The site adjacent to the airport was established in 1959, The Shannon Free Zone was intended to attract investment in exchange for tax incentives and tariff reductions. It succeeded in attracting foreign investment. as of 2019, there were reportedly more than 100 international firms employing more than 8000 people based at the Shannon Free Zone. Companies who have invested at Shannon have included
Element Six (formerly DeBeers Industrial Diamonds),
GECAS,
GE Sensing,
Intel,
Lufthansa Technik,
Zimmer and
UCB. Until 2014, the Shannon Free Zone was managed by
Shannon Development, an
Irish government agency. As of 2020, it is managed by Shannon Commercial Properties, a commercial semi-state company and part of Shannon Group plc. Shannon Free Trade Zone has been an example that influenced
China's Special Economic Zones, and it has been visited by Chinese leaders including
Jiang Zemin (in 1980) and later
Wen Jiabao and
Xi Jinping. ==References==