Waterford Airport.

The bulk of the cost there was replacing the water mains under the road; but blaming the cost on the cycle lane sells more papers / gets more clicks.

The cycle lane was the cheap ancillary addon here, not the other way around.

The last two posters, with over 100,000 posts between them, seem determined to tell us we cant have something. They just dont get it .. We dont give a hoot what you think. We believe we should have it and we will fight to get it….and 70m was for a cycle track whether you like it or not and split hairs.. All the ancillary work facilitated the cycle track. I have no problem with it, but its a wonder it wasnt paved in gold leaf.

We want something, be it 24/7 cardiology or equal status university investment or small airport and we will fight to get it, for as long as it takes despite those trying to run interference. Get over it, or get off the Waterford city page. Find something else to amuse yourselves.

All Irish airports are unviable, as in their incomes are below their running cost and cost of capital. Airports are civic infrastructure- the benefit is across the economy and society never really to the airport. That is true of almost every airport in Europe.

In the past 20 years, more than half a billion went into Cork airport, pumped by Cork politicans, and our simple question is where is the €12m to fund our airport. There was no national discussion on the future of avivation, or the public spending code- they Cork pols just made it happen.

So the question that people in the South East ask is — how can we end the current economic recession, albeit with a labour market uplift, but general economic contraction. Govt funded expansion and investment, stimulus and infrastruture is happening elsewhere all the time, often without drama or campaigning. The airport is a small part of the economic uplift needed in the region- to stabalise the weak MNC offering and support the tourism sector beyond general quality of life benefits. And if Govts answer is no, they must articulate what the will do to support our economy on equal terms to other regions.

Dublin Airport is significantly profitable and funds its own - and Cork's - capital costs. Cork's new terminal didn't get public money.

The 12m will fund a runway extension. It won't fund a single flight.

Nobody here has ever tried to explain where the millions annually required to bribe airlines to fly to a non-viable airport is going to come from.

A dead weight airport is not the answer to the South East's economic problems. It's a way for the councils to have even less cash to spend on anything else.

600k people who already have other options for flights that will continue to be cheaper and have other facilities like 24h buses, airport hotels etc.

If the airport was viable, flights would have resumed after the financial crash. They haven't. Extending the runway in some cargo cult like idea that it'll bring in Ryanair without having to give them crippling incentives (no landing fees, marketing support etc etc) is madness.

The airport ceased to be viable as soon as road improvements made Dublin and Cork much quicker to get to. When they were significantly further away, in travel time terms, the airport had flights to half of the UK, France, Amsterdam and Malaga - and yet it has gone to absolutely nothing, because it is not viable.

If, somehow, the airport gets a business case for the extension that passes muster and it gets built; it will need millions a year to keep airlines going. Can't you figure out something else those millions could be spent on in Waterford that would be more useful? And also the insane amounts of political capital that will be required to get that funding.

The truth hurts.

The ostrich actions on this thread are incredible. If the airport was viable, you'd have flights to the UK operating right now. There are airlines with the airframes, pilots and slots to do so; but they aren't doing it cause it wouldn't make any money.

You dont get it. Its our city and our airport and our effort. You dont agree, fine.

If we want to try build the Kennedy Space Centre there what business is it of yours? Unless of course you represent the places with skin in the game elsewhere out to undermine the aspitrations of others, or are just a naysayer.

Ye keep forgetting lads, it’s parish pump politics if we cough politely and ask the question about regional development. It’s sensible economics to pile more and more money into smaller overpriced spaces in Dublin and Cork.

Remember it takes a population 500K to justify 24:7 cath labs and the SE ends in Ballyhale. It is also thought provoking that on the Herrity cath lab necessity principle, Dublin has a population of about 12M and Cork 3M. It’s no wonder they need all our taxes to keep going.

Wow! Who who have thought if you cram half the population into one small part of the country, cram it with universities, the national airport, the seat of government, the national children’s hospital, a tax dodging financial services centre, national stadia, concert halls, national broadcaster and invest, invest and invest that that area would be where the most finance is generated? You could have knocked me down with a feather there.

We will do like Cork. Run up a debt of 200 million Euro and then transfer it off the books to the DAA. Go mind Cork interests for a while.

If the airport loses money we will beg for support as is normal in Ireland. Go put your tiresome posts esewhere.

Well there is, the airport has received no operational funding for the last few years despite still operating Rescue 117, Waterford Aero Club, Atlantic Flight Training Centre and private.

Yes they are on minimal staff but all current staff are fire and security trained. The current fire tenders meet the category required for Jet Aircraft.

The extra expensive would come from meeting security and fire needs and increased staffing numbers. (The type of funding already provided to all current regional airports)

Over time one would expect the airport to grow which would be requiring less operational funding.

How does Kerry, Knock and Shannon currently operate, some level of income and the rest of operational funding covered by government, the same would apply to Waterford.

Increase in staff, jobs relating to the airport, inbound tourism and the possibility of increased FDI would all go some way in off setting the government support in taxes, job creating and tourism spend.

The airport needs to be looked at in a wider context.

Too true, apologies for forgetting.

I'd love to see a map showing the counties that make up this purported 600,000 population that's going to use an airport at the bottom end of Waterford. Wouldn't be surprised if it includes Bray or Portlaoise or some other places that are nowhere near it and whose people would never go near the place. WAT isn't even the closest airport to parts of County Waterford, never mind the rest of the south east.

Anyway the whole thing is likely a complete bust now after the election. The one big chance to deliver something unsustainable like this would have been to elect an independent TD at the right moment and Waterford did the exact opposite, booting one out instead. A pair of shinners sitting in opposition will deliver a lot of shouting, potentially the odd embarrassing scandal and absolutely nothing else.