How come so many aviation business in/from Ireland

lostexpectation

Just caught the start of the Ulick McEvaddy interview last night, (meant to watch it all but turned off cos the interviewer was asking about whether or not he was going to be a farmer and boarding school /snooze)

but how come so many aviation business' have been founded by Irish guys

particular leasing, you have Tony Ryan and guiness peat aviation and Ulick McEvaddy business too, was it just Irish guys who done well in America? I guess those business were set up and run with American contracts.

now you have ryanair and cityjet aswell...

jmayo

lostexpectation wrote: »

Just caught the start of the Ulick McEvaddy interview last night, (meant to watch it all but turned off cos the interviewer was asking about whether or not he was going to be a farmer and boarding school /snooze)

but how come so many aviation business' have been founded by Irish guys

particular leasing, you have Tony Ryan and guiness peat aviation and Ulick McEvaddy business too, was it just Irish guys who done well in America? I guess those business were set up and run with American contracts.

now you have ryanair and cityjet aswell...

It wasn't that either of them done well in America, even though Omega Air's biggest contrat is to supply air tankers to USAF.
AFAIK they were just guys that spotted a gap in the market and went for it.

One of the McEvaddy brothers, Ulick was in the Irish Army although that would probably not mean he had many contacts in anything aviation.
He was originally an equitation cadet and a captain in the Supply and Transport Corps. He also worked with army intelligence at the Russian desk and learned to speak the language fluently.
Des was a qualified barrister but never practised AFAIK.

They formed a company selling aircarft spares, particulary for 707s I think.
This company was to eventaully become Omega Air and they are biggest supplier of 707s which have been modified to act as Air Tankers.
They both have licenses and both fly.
They originally starting flying and repairing aircraft during summers in Castlebar aeroclub.
Ulick was also on board of Knock Airport which as crow flies is only few miles from his original homeplace. BTW Knock Airport is not near Knock McEvaddy was good buddies with Monsignor Horan, a true visionary. A pity he wasn't a bloody politican because he actually got things done unlike the bunch we do have.
McEvaddy left after fallout with amongst others Padraig Flynn, the little creep.
He has been back on the board for few years now and mentioned that US troop flights could use Knock for refueling rather than Shannon. With his big US Defense contacts this could be a runner.
Also they own large chunk of land around Dublin Airport and wanted to build alternative independent terminal, but Bertie screwed that up so getting new terminal beside old one so still one big traffic mess.

Among other things they started an ice rink in Dublin and were backers of radio station FM104 in it's early days.

Tony Ryan whilst working for Aer Lingus spotted they were leasing out some of their aircraft during the European winter, since they were not been used by the airline.
He realised that there was a market for leasing aircraft on fulltime basis.
GPA was founded as offshoot of Aer Lingus and Guinness Peat Group from London. He then proceeded to travel worldwide organising deals to lease out the aircraft.

BTW Micheal O'Leary was hired by Tony Ryan after they originally met whilst O'Learty was working as accountant for Ryans auditors. BTW O'Leary wanted to wind up the loss making airline when he first got there.
He never worked in US but they met with South West airlines and used that model with RyanAir.

Another interesting point is that Denis O'Brien, later of Esat mobile and now the owner of the Caribean's largest mobile operator, was another employee of Ryan.

CityJet was founded by Pat Byrne just to fly Dublin-London and is now an Air France subsidiary, still with a base in Dublin.

highlydebased

Lots of leasing companies based here


We have also had our fair share of failed starups- Transaer, EUjet, eirjet, jetgreen (those that i can think of)

richie_rvf

The leasing companies are here for the tax breaks.

cp251

A lot of it was to do with Aer Lingus. People got their start there and realised there was potential and left to work elsewhere. In the sixties and seventies Aer Lingus was a great place to work if you liked to work abroad. Aer Lingus used to sell their expertise to other airlines around the world. Many Aer Lingus maintenance supervisors and managers were seconded to airlines in Africa, the Middle East, South America, Asia the Caribbean. Pilots would be leased out to places like Bali. Other Aer Lingus staff were seconded abroad. A friend of mine was caught in Kuwait when Iraq invaded.

Inevitably many saw opportunities and left Aer Lingus to pursue them. Say what you like about Aer Lingus, but it was a nursery for many of current crop of entrepeneurs.

jmayo

cp251 wrote: »

A lot of it was to do with Aer Lingus. People got their start there and realised there was potential and left to work elsewhere. In the sixties and seventies Aer Lingus was a great place to work if you liked to work abroad. Aer Lingus used to sell their expertise to other airlines around the world. Many Aer Lingus maintenance supervisors and managers were seconded to airlines in Africa, the Middle East, South America, Asia the Caribbean. Pilots would be leased out to places like Bali. Other Aer Lingus staff were seconded abroad. A friend of mine was caught in Kuwait when Iraq invaded.

Inevitably many saw opportunities and left Aer Lingus to pursue them. Say what you like about Aer Lingus, but it was a nursery for many of current crop of entrepeneurs.

Aer Lingus in a nutshell.
Good for it's employees, but not so good for the owners - us the taxpayers or us it's customers.

Tenger

Deleted at Tengers request by Mod