Waterford Airport.

Nice to see again, this time from Tipperary

https://m.independent.ie/regionals/tipperary/news/tipperary-councillors-hit-out-at-lack-of-investment-waterford-airport-a-wonderful-asset-not-fit-for-purpose/a253149832.html

Wow - the irony of this post is honestly hilarious. You don't even know the capacity of a 738 or a Max and yet you come on here throwing digs at others about simple calculations and ignorance. Embarrassed for you.

We in the SE have a big problem with commentators such as yourself coming into a regional forum (when you are not from here) telling us in the SE what we can and cannot have when you are sitting pretty with your beloved Knock airport..

as for the 300 pax numbers the previous poster had and you ridiculed..you do realise aircraft do not arrive into and airport empty to fly to a destination..the average capacity of a 737-8 or a A320 is around 150 pax so a round trip is 300 but you are blinded by your hatred of WAT getting a measly 12m of government investment to unlock 30m investment..a true PPP

It's probably more realistic to look at the cso stats for other regional airports to get an idea of potential numbers.

For a mature route to LTN for a few years you are looking ar approx 100k per year so maybe after a few years of a Ryanair operation you could reach maybe 200-250k if you also get a few more routes to MAN BHX and the odd holiday routes.

Just leaving aside the runway issue for the moment, Emerald have a decent operation into Manchester so they could in theory run a route from there to WAT. I wonder if the airport has talked to them about it?

Emerald already use this method to serve Cork from Glasgow even though they don't have aircraft based in either place.

Nope - go back and read his original post if you're capable of it. He said "Just one daily return flight would be potentially 200,000 annual passengers."

When challenged on the numbers he claimed it would be "300 passengers in either direction" to make up his 200k a year (so 600 passengers x 364 days of operations to get to his number).

Your 150 each way calculation gets you nowhere near that. Absolutely clueless, the pair of you.

the state has to step up and start taking more risks, or we simply wont meet these critical requirements to maintain a functioning society and economy, for some time, this will mean running low usage public transport, to try encourage people away from using private, mainly fossil fueled vehicles, noting most simply arent going to move towards non fossil fueled vehicles, i.e. ev's, for many years to come.

other advanced nations, including european countries, have already made this change, generally being very successful, which in turn is making, or has already done so, more successful economies, irelands public transport network is now dangerously out of date, and severely behind many european counties, this again, seriously negatively impacts younger generations, but also us older generations.

effectively, we have to make the demand, as depending on other entities, such as 'market forces', is just pie in the sky stuff!

but dont worry, our policy makers will follow your approach, meaning, we re screwed!

I agree its honestly really tiresome at this stage, as is the eternal wait for funding from the government. Almost 1.5 years now!

I'm not here to troll, just to give some perspective and ask for some context.

• Kerry Airport opened in 1968
• It had 412k PAX last year, about 40% of which was just flights to Dublin Aairport.
• They have 11 routes, including London Stansted, London Luton and Dublin
• It sits in the middle of Tralee (26k people) and Killarney (15k people). It is also the only airport in Ireland with a rail line (technically) to it
• It is located around 1.5hrs from Limerick City Centre, 2.5hrs from Galway City Centre and 3hrs from Dublin City Centre via road, and 1.5hrs from Cork City Centre by road and about 2 hours by train
• County Kerry had a population of about 156k people in 2022, and if we count Cork, Limerick and Tipperary as potential counties that may choose it (I know people in West Cork who use it as its easier), that's roughly 1M people between the four counties. Obviously that number means nothing as parts of each county are closer to Shannon and Cork, but we'll go with it for now.

In comparison:

• Waterford Airport is 2hrs from Dublin City Centre, 2hrs from Cork City Centre, a little over 2hrs from Limerick City Centre, and 3hrs from Galway City Centre.
• The county has a population of 127k. If we add Kilkenny, Tipperary, Waterford, Cork and Wexford counties' populations, we get about 1M people again. Again, using county is pretty broad, given parts of County Cork are closer to the Atlantic (and so, Kerry) than they are Waterford Airport, but we'll stick with it.

Waterford won't get flights to Dublin, which as I said account for nearly 40% of Kerry's PAX. So let's say Kerry has 300k pax. Why would Waterford be able to get to at least 300k pax like Kerry? Waterford Airport isn't well connected to the national road network like Kerry, has no train line like Kerry, and is likely as convenient or more convenient for people travelling from the other cities to the country's other airports. Other than county bounds, which are just lines on maps, why would someone in North Kilkenny choose to go to Waterford Airport?

Another important question is does Waterford Airport have the same infrastructure as Kerry to handle 300k PAX, even after the runway extension. It peaked at 114K PAX in 2008 when it was a functioning airport, so unless it was extremely underutilised, I assume the actual airport, road network, and parking would need serious upgrades.

Why would someone in North KK use Waterford over Dublin, probably for the same reason someone in Waterford city would use Cork over Dublin, convenience, less traffic, easier parking, less hustle and bustle in the airport etc.

Shannon and Cork are 45 minutes further than Waterford from Castlecomer.

At the best of times.

In other words reasonable debate and discussion will not be tolerated, as it has a habit of bringing up unfortunate truths that people like Bards here don't want to hear. All hands on the parish pump…😁

So its parish pump now to ask for a level playing field for Waterford / the South East with regards to Government investment?

Surely parish pump politics, where other areas have received more than their fair share - leaving a large investment disparity in Waterford and the South East - is exactly why we are going so strong for the airport?

If we simply got what the other 4 cities / regions receive, then we probably wouldn't be too concerned about the airport. Or maybe the airport would be justified!

Simple yes or no question, do you think Waterford and the South East region should receive the same funding as the other cities/ regions in Ireland?

(Also I dont agree with shutting down debate and think Bards is wrong on that.)

Dublin is too big an airport for WAT to be a concern. All the interference is coming from Cork and its politics. A strong Waterford is not good for Cork in all areas such as transport, healthcare,education etc. Keep the pressure on is all we can do.

Any more news it's been very quiet lately, I'm worried the can has been kicked yet again