Waterford Airport.

In the 19th century towns and cities all over the country lobbied Dublin Castle for more soldiers and bigger garrisons in their area for the economic spin off. Any TD will tell you that Ireland is administered on the basis of who gets what with every one watching everyone else. I wish it were not like that, that we had a properly administered plan for the country, but anyone who lives in the south east will have seen power politics in action first hand. (University anyone?) Its the way we are, whether its dose (never heard that before) or not. Its fight your corner and dog eat dog. And by the way, I believe there is a lot more economic activity and more people in the south east than in SLigo or Donegal. I wish those area well, but in the heel of the hunt, if we are going to have an airport in Waterford with a rescue service and a flying school and a fair few cargo flights, it makes simple sense to have a proper runway.Why that possibility excites and attracts so much negative comment on this page from people obviously not from Waterford, is beyond me.

Waterford is welcome to expand, if it does so with private funding and subsequently continues to be privately funded to make up the inevitable financial shortfall caused by a lack of demand for it's services due to its hopeless location to the south of the city and in a region that is already very well connected by road to other facilities. Same as Galway would have been in that respect had someone invested in it at the time.

But there's extremely limited justification, if any, for government funding of an airport expansion in a location that has a two hour motorway link to the largest airport in the state - whether that's Galway Airport or Waterford. Which is what people seem to be asking for here - millions of government money for an airport that really isn't needed and few will use.

€5 million is a grain of sand on the beach that is government spending, especially when it is to be matched by the local authorities and investors.

€5 million falls out of a Minister's pocket anytime they visit Dublin/Cork/Galway. This equating of anything to do with Waterford as 'parish pump', as if it's some boreen in the back arse of Connemara looking for airport funding is a joke. If anything, the South East is the worst serviced region in the country for air travel, with numerous large population centres currently slogging to Dublin at all hours of the night to catch early flights.

A small airport with flights to London from Ireland's 5th largest city would easily return €5 million to the economy within a few years.

I don't see the word Mods under your name, me bucko, so I'll post what I feel like within the rules of the forum thanks very much.

Just discovered the good people at SENSER had produced this study a few years back; http://www.senser.ie/resources/SENSER%20Estimating%20Airport%20Demand%20SC2%20Nov%202017.pdf

Population figures and therefore potential catchment numbers have only risen sharply since then.

Someone remind me of just how much debt was taken from Cork Airport and put on DAA balance sheet? (Cork Airport’s €200m debt is a “red herring” that has no impact on its day-to-day operations but which would be even greater today had the airport been responsible for it over the past number of years, rather than the DAA. Examiner) Waterford Airport never had a realistic chance of succeeding with turbo prop versus 737s with costs being divided by seat numbers. Again, if we are going to have an airport to facilitate the things that happen there at present then we should have a proper runway.Kerry and Knock both succeeded when they could access jet flights. Galway failed without them. If private investment is prepared to take the gamble on Waterford, then so be it. Why should that matter to the persistent voices posting here that just dont want an airport in Waterford at all?. Just do wonder how the airport might have progressed if it had had a 737 runway when Ryanair started there. Odds on they would still be there.

Again those two years after, Waterford was very limited due to the runway and airline, full length runway in place and the option of jet aircraft and things could be different.

Anyhow we can all argue all day if Waterford is viable or not or whether we have the population to support it and potential airlines.

Fact of the matter is, it is all irrelevant unless we have the runway in place.

Will we get the runway? I'm not so sure, business case has still yet to be sent into government, no word on contracts with the Galway lads.

No pun intended but it's all still up in the air.

So what, they're going to build apartments along each side of the runway or knock through the fence to the business park and build more units on the airport land? If they wanted to diversify into redeveloping obsolete airports don't they have a handier candidate on their own doorstep?

Any update on this never ending saga?

Is it a case of ‘build it and they will come’ ie an airline like Ryanair/Aer Lingus or wait for an airline to commit before commencing works…?

Not financial plan sent to government as of yet, so very unlikely we even see any movement in Q2

The real unit of air travel is the aeroplane routes, not the single passenger.

For everyone in this thread who likes sums.... new 737s have 189 seats, they used to have around 160 (similar to Airbus). A plane landing or departing is 378. One of these a day for a year is 138k passengers (if all full), and two flights everyday tumble out at 276k passangers. We know there is a market for the Waterford to London route, perhaps one other regional UK route. The next step up is a summer route, and one to an international hub (Paris, Amsterdam

Knock currently has Aer Lingus London–Gatwick (ends 25 March 2023 replaced with London–Heathrow) and Ryanair Bergamo, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London–Luton, London–Stansted, Málaga, Manchester, and season routes to Alicante, Cologne/Bonn, Faro, Girona,[Lanzarote and Palma de Mallorca . All these routes were slowly built up over two decades, they are broadly profitable or they would be cut- Ryanair and Aer Lingus are lean enterprises.

Of course, not all planes are full, but airlines, particularly low-cost ones are good at high-load capacities. Nor do they travel every day on every route.

If Knock and Kerry can do it, with their low-density population hinterland, Waterford certainly looks like a winner. The trouble is, Cork and Dublin with all their political might understand that it could eat into their airports. Look at Simon Covney's twitter feed if you wish to see how close he is to Cork airport issues.

Not that I can think of. The question once again is, are they serious?, were they ever serious? and what is in it for them?

There is zero return in a regional airport so very hard to see them getting any return on their investment unless they had other interests in Waterford that would benefit off the back of a commerical operating runway.

I presume government funding would be the only thing stopping them as the plan always seemed to be private investment plus government funding.

If Waterford is such a winner you'd think it would have at least one or two routes at present operated by the likes of Aer Lingus Regional, who could operate from the current facility right now if they wanted to? An extended runway might pull in a couple of Ryanair routes, but that's about it. And that would require significant ongoing government funding just to keep the doors open.

They fly from Belfast City and Cork also. If there isn't even scope for an airline to operate a turboprop on a W route to serve Waterford from a London airport I really don't see how extending the runway is somehow going to turn the place into the next Knock.

Waterford to London at 7am or 7.30 am flight with a return evening flight at 19.00 or 19.30 would work, but the issue with this is you require to base an aircraft which pushes up the cost in running such a service as you need flight crew, cabin crew and engineering based in Waterford, too much overhead.

As the poster above says, aer lingus regional operate Dublin, cork and Belfast where they would already have access to flight crews, cabin crews and engineering services which makes them a more attractive offering.

A drop in service could work but would mean a 10am or 11am flight which means you miss the business travel.

To base an aircraft you could manage a 14.00 or 15.00 flight also but that requires having 3 x flight crew, cabin crew and engineers as you would need two shifts working and one shift on rest.

It's fairly costly in basing an aircraft and then if there is an issue with a plane you have no back up based there so then it's ship passengers off to Dublin or cork where as being based in Dublin or cork they could offer passages flights on another airline.

More money for the regional airports given today. WAT obviously not included, this is becoming another farce at this stage. All the TDs very silent on the airport issue. Maybe we should set up a go fund me it might be faster in getting something delivered.

What are the chances of any work starting this summer?

It’s now or never in regards to the airport. No shortage of money it seems. Hopefully no interference from Cork politics!

I understand that for it to be approved it has to be brought by Minister for Transport Eamonn Ryan to cabinet. Resistance in that quarter hence business plan has had to go through many iterations. It would be no surprise to anyone that Mr Ryan is not an aviation fan with all that implies for the Waterford project. Mr O Cathasaigh TD and Green Party whip has hardly been vocal in his support?

O Cathasaigh has said he won’t support until he has seen the business plan! No suprise here as he is more concerned about cycle lanes in Cork than anything Waterford related. Such a poor performing TD. Can’t see him holding onto his seat next GE.