Waterford Airport.

its actually extremely worrying, an astonishing level of shortsightedness, i think we ve been had, but time will tell, theres was no chance an airline would have rocked up as is, but theres only a slight chance when these works are complete, i think theres a lot of fawning over investors happening here, which isnt always a good thing!

I'm sure it has been stated already, I definitely have. The airport as it was had literally gone past borrowed time.

Had the shareholders held onto their shares and Billy big bucks pulled out. They would have been left with nothing either way.

There were two options, stay as you are and close the doors or let Billy big bucks have a pop at it.

Neither might produce the desired outcome but option B is far better than option A

How much were were those original shares worth when the original shareholders gave them up and how much would they have been diluted by the 30 million euro new investment?

How much would those original shares be worth without the significant investment in developing the the airport?

You've repeatedly made it clear that you think the airport is not commercially viable in any shape or form.

So why do you care if he just extends the runway for himself and doesn't allow any commercial airlines in? Surely that's your dream outcome?

Why would it be my dream outcome? I have no personal preference either way, my interest is just in terms of Irish aviation in general.

It's not about "allowing commercial airlines in". I can't imagine the new owner will have any problem with that, in principle. It's about who is paying to cover the losses they will generate for the airport when Michael O'Leary demands free access, which he undoubtedly will. The airport has been given away by the local community to a secretive foreign owner with dubious links in the US, in the hope of gaining commercial services, with no promise of them being funded by the owner in return.

The local councils have now washed their hands of it. Meanwhile the outgoing board are patting themselves on the back as they leave and the locals are being told the Ryanair planes will be landing next summer, when there's absolutely nothing in print to suggest that will actually be the case. It's a bizarre situation.

Again that point has been discussed to death, if WAT gets commerical services it will be entitled to funding under the regional airport program as the other regional airports do with commerical services.

The tax payer will foot the cost as with most things in this country.

You argued that this money could/should be spent elsewhere in the South East, but have failed to say where to spend it.

Let's say the operation cost is 2million per year, in terms of health, education or an area that counts, that level of funding would get nothing substantial.

And that funding will barely scratch the surface of the costs involved. And no funding at all will be provided until there are services in place. So someone has to pay to initiate them. And pay millions more on top of that on an ongoing basis to retain them. As has been pointed out to you and others multiple times.

Because its actually killing some people that its actually happening.

Waterford needed about 600k a year over the past few years to keep operational, if they don't get commerical services that is a drop in the ocean for the American to continue to use the airport for himself, so I wouldn't be worried about that level of funding.

If the airport attracts commerical services, they will require increased funding and will no doubt knock on the governments door.

In the early days of Cork, Shannon, Knock etc how did they survive? Government support. That is how Waterford will survive and progress, it's simple really.

No one has denied it will need support if it operators commerical services, as I have said 101 times before, it's not like that money would be spent elsewhere in the southeast.

The worry or possible your worry is, if Waterford ends up pulling from the regional airport funding there might be less for the rest, but as you have stated how viable these other airports are they surely require less funding at this stage, and away like all things in ireland, government would just increase the spending.

I honestly feel like this argument is doing a full circle and we are discussing points that have been discussed to death.

Maybe going forward we should change the discussion, ground is due to be broke soon, so let's discuss the development, and in time let's discuss commerical operations or non commerical operations and what funding is required/provided, as one thing is clear the extension is going ahead, so let's see what comes next.

I have no "possible worries". However, as long as vested interests keep coming on here posting misinformation, as has happened repeatedly, including by the former shareholder who posted a few posts up the thread about supposed "facts", I don't see why anyone should have an issue with that misinformation being corrected. Unless, of course, being truthful with people doesn't suit certain agendas…

The details have been widely publicised and publicly discussed by William Bolster and others involved. So that's how I know. There really isn't any ambiguity here, or at least there shouldn't be. All the relevant information is in the public domain.

But there is a significant amount of misinformation being posted on this thread by some of those that are particularly favourably disposed towards this being a success in terms of commercial flights. It seems strange that you or anyone else would have an issue with incorrect "facts" being corrected. But here we are.

I was at the AGM, I hold no candle for WCC, I am associated to the Airport in the sense that I have a business in the area, but ultimately I want it to succeed now as I did 40 years ago when I built the first fire station for them pro bono. there is such a thing as altruism still in this nasty little world!

It is a future plan but I'd imagine we will see a planning application submitted later in the year. It's fortunate that the man in the driving seat, William Bolster, happens to have a construction company as among his other business's. And with the speed they are currently constructing the SAR building extension any terminal extension would be a piece of cake.

For your post to be accurate, "curmudgeonly" would need to be more closely connected to the deal than William Bolster, given that Bolster has explicitly confirmed that there is no provision for commercial flights in the deal!

Based on his posts to date it appears far more likely that "curmudgeonly" is simply as uninformed as many of the other shareholders who were tripping over themselves to hand over the facility to an overseas billionaire with no promise of commercial services for the public in return.

Ah, yes..he's a business man that's what they do, he is not a charity..what are you going to tell us next? Water is wet!!

Your posts are beginning to sound more and more desperate..I'd say your some craic on a night out!

Why don't you come down to the sod turning Monday week, we'll get you a seat up front, a bit of finger food, maybe even get you into a few photos! Though I fear the only way we'll see you is chained to the front of a bulldozer wearing your Mayo jersey screaming "Noooooooooooo!!!"