Waterford Airport.

15 minutes from South Kilkenny to Waterford Airport.

Its mad that the same people saying Dublin is close enough to the South East are also saying that an additional 15 minutes makes Waterford airport unusable.

Sorry lad, it is 15 minutes from the Kilkenny border therefore I cannot support such an airport.

Hogan & Howlin made sure WIT would never be a stand alone university. Conquer and divide while Dublin & Cork take all. Two kings of parish pump politics.

Let's be clear if they are travelling transatlantic they would still be flying into Dublin even if Waterford had a runway extension.

Unless you mean via private aircraft? Once the weather was right they could land in Waterford as is. The majority of transatlantic private flights would be something like a Gulfstream V which has often landed in Waterford and continues to do so.

I’d say in Kilkenny , Carlow and Wexford the airport is seen more as “nice to have” rather than something absolutely critical. Dublin is a pain in the arse yes but is fairly accessible for most including Waterford city where it’s the busiest and most trafficked bus routes, I’m sure plenty by rail too from Heuston station.
Im all for the airport by the way and think it would be a great addition and option. Some of the major businesses in Kilkenny and Wexford and Waterford of course are behind it and the councils have to pay an annual contribution so there is support just naturally not a strong as in Waterford itself. Maybe it should have been developed in south Kilkenny alongside the rail line and now motorway but hindsight is wonderful so it may as well be developed where it is now: may not have been a suitable level site there either as these things are quite particular. There’s a lot done already at WAT it’s the extension and associated works that’s needed

yes a pointless conversation- let’s develop the airport where it is and focus on getting funding for the runway infrastructure. After that a good rail link bus would be a great addition to link plane timetable to the railway station and buses

Do you think I'm the only Irish person on the island who has managed to not talk to an American?

I think you fail to understand how differently anyone in the upper management of a company thinks who has every half hour of their week measured and organised for them. 6-8 hour flight + being driven in a car for 2 hours on a good day is not going to be their cup of tea and would definitely be seen as more than a slight inconvenience.

A washing machine wouldn't go around and around as many times as this conversation has.

😁 hilarious.

Tbf the person being blamed for not having an airport for the last 2 years was Eamonn Ryan, with every other party happy to lay the blame at his feet. So now that the Greens are no longer in Government shouldn't we be seeing some movement. So thats a good bit of change.

Unfortunately geographically Waterford city is in a tough place as our south east regional Leinster neighbours feel closer to Dublin than Waterford.

Dungarvan/clonmel roughly 1 hour drive to Cork airport and Waterford airport.

Kilkenny city/wexford town an extra 20 minutes drive and they have Dublin airport on their step.

The government would probably rather build a Dublin south airport in around New bridge Kildare as it's linking cork/limerick/Waterford by both motorway and train line.

That is true and probably one that Dublin doesn’t like. All the other regional airports are far enough away. Some kind of strategic alliance with DUB would be good but they’re probably not interested but I’ve seen that in the U.K./England there are airport groups that operate the airports in certain parts of the country

Southend is predominantly focused on UK outbound traffic, with nearly all of it's destinations sun resorts for UK travellers.

It also has a rail link to central London offering journey times of less than 1hr.

However, Southend's model might make a more interesting business case for WAT than the inbound argument (albeit the regional benefits wouldn't be as great).

Target low-fare operators and package operators servicing sun and ski destinations, making a heavy play for the price-sensitive budget holidaymakers.

dont be surprised if we re still waiting heading into the next ge!

There is no requirement for a second airport to serve Dublin (and certainly not located in Waterford!). There is plenty of scope to expand the current airport as required, the cap will be lifted as it's national essential infrastructure serving an island and the airport will continue to develop from there.

Anyway MOL killed the Waterford expansion stone dead a few weeks ago. The only show in town now is Aer Lingus Regional, or another regional operator who can use the existing infrastructure if there's even demand for 70 seater aircraft, which to date there doesn't even seem to be.