Waterford Airport.

prepare yourself, this is very unlikely to happen this government, and possible never!

If you really want something to progress you need push it locally to make it happen. Waiting on central government is just not working so you need to try and rally local interests to push it forwards yourselves.

The lack of any current scheduled flights is not helping confidence or credibility outside of Waterford, so this needs to be the first thing to resolve. I think there is a decent chance to try and get Emerald to do a W pattern from Manchester so I would be trying to convince them to try it. Even offer them some incentives like free handling or fees for a period just get it going.

After that then try and get some parts of the ruway project started with local money like knock did, then later approaching the government for help complete it. If you remember this is exactly how knock got built. If you already have a successful route up and running and doing well this will massively help government confidence in viability.

43.30 minutes, Cummins stating that the airport was part of FG's manifesto, stating the airport will be part of forming government and how his party and the leader of his party are fully behind it, and how he has the commitment from his party for the runway extension.

Unable to share the video with the timestamp as sharing via the app but just skip yo 43.30 in the Déise Today election debate.

Why wouldn’t Cork Airport want to expand its catchment area? It’s not a charity. Regardless, I don’t think Cork Airport or Cork politicians* really see Waterford Airport (which had a max of 188k PAX at its peak in the Celtic Tiger) as any form of completion to be worried about

*not that I don’t think they have much say in any of this - they can barely deliver for Cork as is (see: Event Centre), I doubt they can hold back Waterford Airport while they’re at it

I agree, it's obvious the government wont fund it at this stage, they need to find other ways to get the funds.

I don't see the harm in trying to bring in emerald or whoever for the time being as the runway extension likely won't be happening for a long while.

This is just my opinion

You just don't get it or you refuse to accept the arguments which are self-evident to those of us living in Waterford. The NPF, and the NSS before it, identifies Waterford as 1 of 4 regional cities that need to be invested in to grow to critical mass to act as counter-weights to the sprawling unchecked growth of Dublin, and help achieve equitable regional development.

Part of achieving this aim is to make sure each of these cities has critical national or regional level infrastructure. This includes a University, an acute regional-level hospital, port, retail, hotels, major employers, etc. etc. and yes, an airport with international flights to attract FDI as well as tourism. Cork, Limerick & Galway have a lot more of these boxes ticked than Waterford and all three continue to receive more political patronage and investment than Waterford (notwithstanding the failure of Galway Airport vis-à-vis Knock).

Clustering critical infrastructure around critical regional cities makes sense and is government policy as outlined in the NPF.

You don't see Waterford, and it's status, in those terms - fine. You are not going to change anyone's mind on here and we're not going to convince you otherwise. So why don't you just stop posting on this forum coz you're just annoying everyone, not changing minds.

It's not 2 hours though, well ye at certain times of the day it's possible.

Last week there was an accident on the N7 and it took 1hr 20mins to get from the green isle to the red car park.

Granted you won't always have an accident but it is a high possibility on the N7, M50 and due to this you have to leave ample time when travelling to Dublin.

So you want a flight to London or somewhere handy and you are putting in 3-4 hours of your time for a flight under an hour, it's soul destroying, trust me, I regularly take it with work. Coming back after a day's work and having the spin home is twice as soul destroying.

The arguement can be made, I want the convenience of a handy life and I should just suck up a 6-8hr round trip to London, but you know what I could definitely put those 7-8hrs to better use of my time had we flights operating from here in Waterford.

The next arguement against me is Waterford could service London now with a turbo prop but the airport have categorically stated they do not see a future in turbo props and their end game is jet capable runway so that is where we are.

I'm lucky enough to be able to drive to Dublin airport, those in public transport and they round trip is even longer.

..and the motorway we didn't need as the average usage was below the needs for one when we had a dirt track excuse for a national road..I.e the old N9..as I said before he is a troll and we have experience of them on this forum..plebs from outside the region telling us, the people who live here, what we can and cannot have as though we are second class citizens..makes the blood boil

Yes, they wanted it to go as far as Kilkenny only for Martin Cullen to push it through. When you think of the madness of it, stopping it in Kilkenny to get back on to a national road to get to the capital of the southeast.

From podcast on wlrfm

https://www.wlrfm.com/podcasts/deise-today/listen-the-potential-of-waterford-airport-according-to-aviation-leaders-836950

This is the important bit as someone who knows what he's talking about believes WAT is viable

"Former CEO of the Irish Aviation Authority and co-author of 'A Pathfinder for Irish Aviation' Eamonn Brennan, spoke to Damien on 'Deise Today', highlighting the opportunities for Waterford Airport - if it was given due attention and funding."

IFA County Chairs from the South-East are calling on the Government to immediately fund the long-awaited expansion of Waterford Airport, including its proposed runway extension.

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/waterford-airport-ifa-850359

The minister decides, anything else from Ms Butler is an uttter cop out. She seems completely unable to exercise influence.

That's it Mary: always the fault of someone else. Now the green bogeyman Eamon Ryan has been put out to pasture it's the fault of the civil servants. Or is it the Comer's or Bolster or the Council - I've lost track.

How about you Mary Butler and John Cummins? Maybe you're the problem? Maybe you're just not very good.

Why did they include it in their priorities when canvassing if they have no influence?