O'Leary dismisses future for Waterford Airport

Sully

Just spotted this thread and this quote from Micheal O'Leary of Ryanair;

On regional airport development, he said: "There is no future for Donegal; there's no future for Galway; there's absolutely no future for Waterford; there's no future for Sligo and Knock, despite the fact that we fly there, is pretty flakey."

Personally, I think hes gone mad. Whatever about Waterford being pushed out of business, his theory is complete lunacy.

Guess we wont be seeing Ryanair fly into Waterford anytime soon

Tragamin2k2

lol

robtri

thank god we won't see ryanair here, why would anyone want to fly with them, they don't give a damn about their passengers.... nearly every week some paper has horror stories about.... good enough they stay away..

KingLoser

Michael O'Leary can go suck farts.

Roen

I've never been on a Ryanair flight that wasn't at least 90% full. I wouldn't discount the mans opinion no matter how he chooses to get it across.

I genuinely hope he's wrong though. I'd love to see Waterford airport doing great!

mike65

This is discussed on the Infrastructure forum.

Mike.

Sully

mike65 wrote: »

This is discussed on the Infrastructure forum.

Mike.

Pfft, stop trying to drag away Deise folks to discuss this topic in your silly little forum Mike

robtri

this is a waterford issue... hands off....
keep that O'Leary guy out, Waterford airport will do fine, we don't need bad tempered annoyed people arriving here, cause thats all we will get if ryan air starts landing here

mike65

Sully wrote: »

your silly little forum Mike

Banned from Infrastructure for EV-ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Ooooooh you'll regret that, one day - maybe soon, you'll need to find out about the legal minimum height of crash barriers used on the Kilmacthomas by-pass and you'll regret that quip :pac:

Mike.

Mossy Monk

robtri wrote: »

why would anyone want to fly with them

Oh I don't know. Maybe because they are cheap? They can treat me like **** all they want if I am only paying taxes but amazingly they never have.

robtri

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Oh I don't know. Maybe because they are cheap? They can treat me like **** all they want if I am only paying taxes but amazingly they never have.

Good to hear you have had good experiences with them, I have flown with many airline carriers and have found ryan air to be the worst, also don't find them as cheap as they are made out, when you look at the hidden charges, charge for using your credit card to pay, charge for checking in, charge for priority boarding, charge for luggage, it adds up for a lot of passengers, also their attitudes towards disabled passengers as featured in recent-ish news articles. not the type of company I like to see.

Bards

I started the thread on the Infrastructure Forum because it affects not just Waterford, but all the other regional airports too

Cabaal

mike65 wrote: »

Banned from Infrastructure for EV-ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Ooooooh you'll regret that, one day - maybe soon, you'll need to find out about the legal minimum height of crash barriers used on the Kilmacthomas by-pass and you'll regret that quip :pac:

Mike.

and why would he need to know the min height? :eek:

Mossy Monk

robtri wrote: »

Good to hear you have had good experiences with them, I have flown with many airline carriers and have found ryan air to be the worst, also don't find them as cheap as they are made out, when you look at the hidden charges, charge for using your credit card to pay, charge for checking in, charge for priority boarding, charge for luggage,

Online check in and only hand luggage works just fine for me. That will get you priority boarding also. I don't see the need for that anyway as you will be on the same flight regardless.

alpha2zulu

Well I think the post by Fricatus on this subject in the infrastructure thread nicely sums up the fact that despite O' Learys mutterings Waterford Airport will be around for a long time to come.

Passenger numbers in Waterford were 24,000 in 2003. They were 116,000 in 2007. They are likely to be higher again in 2008.
- There are four return flights a week to Amsterdam now, and I believe the Luton route is up to three flights a day.
- The M9 and M25 routes are coming on stream within the next two years. These link to the Outer Ring Road south of the city, which in turn links to the new airport road, which has just been completed.
- I know of people from as far away as Laois who now use Waterford airport for flights to London. The Kilkenny ring road has cut the journey time to about the same as Dublin, but the benefits are in check-in and security times.
- Cork is a good alternative for people in county Waterford itself because the N25 is good, but when your starting point is Carlow, Kilkenny or Wexford, the nearby airport in Waterford begins to make a lot of sense.
- Just a personal opinion, but Dublin has got a lot worse in the past two years. It's in a never-ending state of chaos. Surely it's a good thing that alternative airports exist?
- When the M9 is finished and the runway extension at WAT is in place, surely Ryanair could consider using it as an alternative to Dublin? It's the closest alternative airport to the capital. "Frankfurt"-Hahn is 120 km from the city of Frankfurt, remember.
- I don't know a lot about the rest of the airports, but it would seem to me that of all of them, Galway makes the most sense. Indeed the initiative to offer a range of continental flights from Galway via Waterford created a critical mass that mightn't otherwise exist.

Besides i think that having an Aer Arann service three times a day to London is much more useful to the busness community than what would probably be only a daily flight if Ryanair were on the route.This was the case until very recently on the Ryanair routes from Kerry, Knock and Derry to Stansted which for years had only 1 London flight daily.With the 0730am departure to Luton I've been able to leave home at 0630 and be in St.Pancras station at 0940, and return the same day at 2055 from Luton. It would be a great pity for the frequency to fall so I would be all for keeping Aer Arann on the London route regardless of the future runway extension allowing jets.

Online check in and only hand luggage works just fine for me. That will get you priority boarding also

Sorry to disappoint you Mossy but for bookings made after the 3rd June priority boarding is no longer included free for online check in passengers, so the service is now 10euro return for all passengers.

tonc76

Cabaal wrote: »

and why would he need to know the min height? :eek:

To see if your legal case is valid having gone through one and cheated death:pac:

Mossy Monk

alpha2zulu wrote: »

Sorry to disappoint you Mossy but for bookings made after the 3rd June priority boarding is no longer included free for online check in passengers, so the service is now 10euro return for all passengers.

As said in my post Priority Boarding is nothing I would be bothered about.

Nolanger

We need an airport because they'll always be people here who want to leave.

KevIRL

course the ironing is that Ryanair's first ever flight was from Waterford...

AdMMM

I most definitely can't see Waterford Regional Airport ever developing at the same rate that is has in the past two years. Yes, Aer Arann have done a great job in securing some popular routes, but air travel is becoming much more expensive and the level of capital available for further development isn't what it used to be. Money is not going to be invested into Waterford Regional Airport as long as the outlook for the economy remains bleak.

Just this weekend, I flew to Amsterdam, not from Waterford but from Belfast because it was 700% cheaper! Yes, it may have been convenient to fly from Waterford, but lets face it, the majority no longer have the disposable income to pay for such convenience.

Cabaal

KevIRL wrote: »

course the ironing is that Ryanair's first ever flight was from Waterford...

Your kidding me right?

Kev I thought you were on holidays?

robtri

KevIRL wrote: »

course the ironing is that Ryanair's first ever flight was from Waterford...

yeps thats true in 1985, in a very small little plane( by todays standards), Ryanair started the Waterford to Gatwick route, it was 1986 before they started the Dublin to London run..... not sure when the waterford route died a death though

mike65

That Ryanair was a very different company. O'Leary joined in 1988 and took charge in 1994 I think and completely re-imagined the company.

Mike.

Bards

robtri wrote: »

yeps thats true in 1985, in a very small little plane( by todays standards), Ryanair started the Waterford to Gatwick route, it was 1986 before they started the Dublin to London run..... not sure when the waterford route died a death though

around 91/92 they pulled out of Waterford. I remember flying from Waterford to Luton in '86

tonc76

|.Murderer.| wrote: »

Just this weekend, I flew to Amsterdam, not from Waterford but from Belfast because it was 700% cheaper! Yes, it may have been convenient to fly from Waterford, but lets face it, the majority no longer have the disposable income to pay for such convenience.

I'm going to assume that you were in Belfast anyway and decided to go to Amsterdam? You surely didn't drive from Waterford to Belfast (which is 4 hours 40 mins each way according to aaroadwatch, never mind the cost of petrol/diesel) just to get a cheap flight?

post no 333 (the number of the beasts child - Beastín as he likes to be called)