Waterford Airport in Danger of Closing!?

lotusm

Chiparus wrote: »

I think an extension to allow Jets is critical, we had to make it worth while for people to use WRH airport as compared to other airports e.g. drop parking charges.

We should look to Knock airport as model

http://www.irelandwestairport.com/flightinformation/route_map.aspx

I totally agree if there is no extesion of the runway, the airlines wont come. in regard to car parking charges this is valuable source of revenue for airports, especillay knock, and without it it would be in trouble. As it stands it is juat about breaking even and it had close to 700k passengers last year.

havetoquit

I would so hate to see this great little asset to the South East left abandoned like our ghost villages.

I can never understand when we hear every day how vital our tourism is to our economy and yet such lack of effort being put into improving it. Surely is is long since obvious that there are a large number of people who would love to come here, if it did not mean long drives across Britain to the ferries and further on, making their journey difficult. Then there are those who would love an all in one long weekend type of break in Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford and the surrounding areas. We have plenty of almost empty hotels and other accommodation for them. No, I don't understand the attitudes at all.

Even if the extension costs a lot, surely it would pay for itself in time. We could ask for sponsorship from large companies, or find other ways of raising funds, if we are passionate enough.

Again, this is probably naive optimism on my part, but I feel strongly that as the airport is already there, that it is worth any effort, but if the general public are not made aware of it's importance, they will show no interest and will apply the usual ' Ah sure' response if it is closed permanently, but then complain when their children have to travel long journeys to get to UK and back for work, as more and more have to now.

havetoquit

Every time I use the Rosslare ferry, I cringe to see older less mobile folk arrive for their holidays or from visiting families to find that their coach has not waited until the ferry arrives. It is shameful. One wonders if anyone really cares.

foxcoverteddy

Isn't this the time to start shouting? There is a good idea sponsorship, so when is "Fly Waterford" going to be the word, if you sit back you can forget it, push your local politicians, well not literally, WLR, chat to the Airport try and get a plan into action.
It might do no harm to get the local bus company to come past, especially when Flybe are operating, if the local hotels want trade now is the time.
Remember "Fly Waterford"
People have built brick structures selling bricks with donations, how about bags of cement etc, donate to the airport, get a day free parking.

havetoquit

Hi and Foxcoverteddy your suggestions are great and I sense that you have a real interest too. How do you suppose we should go about this collectively? I have often called the airport, but unfortunately the assistant who responds just offers to forward my comments. One or two interested people writing to them would also not help, so would calling South East Radio, writing to newspapers help, or would this just not hold any weight unless there were a few hundred letters?

I just wish I had knowledge of how to really go about such things, or whom I should approach, but again, it would be seen as just one woman calling from the wilderness with a wish to have an airport near where she lives, which of course is only a small part of it.

I keep thinking that surely before now, many others have voiced their opinion on this and maybe even put forward the points we raised, such as sponsorship etc, so I guess we would need someone on board with the right knowledge to confirm whether our suggestions were convincing enough to be given consideration by those authorities who are making the decisions regarding the airport.

I live in a very rural area and quite honestly, the folk I come into contact with are quick to moan about the trouble they and their children have to travel to an airport and so on, but the moment I suggest getting up a petition, there is a lack of response or even the vaguest enthusiasm. As per usual, they sit and wait for someone else to make the decisions.

I am not suggesting that every rural dweller has this attitude, but it's just that the ones who do not seem to evade me.

If anyone on here has the knowledge and experience in such matters and would like to guide/advise on how we should proceed in order to gain a voice where it matters, then I for one would be so willing to sign my name to any petition and also take part in phone ins to Waterford and Wexford radio stations.

Let's try collectively to access the appropriate resources to do this thing and then at least we cannot say we did not try. Just to keep venting on here will not bring us any closer to achieving our goal, as it is time to walk the walk.

foxcoverteddy

Havetoquit, brilliant, I do have the same problem, how to start? I will try the Aviation and Aircraft Forum to test for any support, perhaps the moderator's might like to give a hand in this.
After all there is no personal gain, it is a community thing.
Yes we live rural, Kilkenny, hopefully any posters who have an interest in benefiting the community will add their weight to this plea, and perhaps anyone connected to the airport.
The other forum I use is FR24, flight radar 24, though this is a swedish run forum, it is world wide audience.
Many thanks for your post, Fly Waterford

foxcoverteddy

Apparently the land has been purchased and planning permission granted for extending the runway, needs a donation of about 20mill, which is not that much in the general scheme of things.
We only need four sponsers with 5mill each and we are up up and away.
Just think of the employment that could come out of such a step.
Seeing so many airlines overfly Waterford surely some of them could land, especially holiday charter's etc.
It would also work for cruise liner's as a pick up and drop off.
As they say it is all in the air.
Work to do now, thanks for reading if nothing else. Foxy

Trotter

I think it would have to come from donations or private funding. I think that there would be little or no political will from those with the money to give us the funding because there would be uproar from the Cork direction I would imagine.

foxcoverteddy wrote: »

Apparently the land has been purchased and planning permission granted for extending the runway, needs a donation of about 20mill, which is not that much in the general scheme of things.
We only need four sponsers with 5mill each and we are up up and away.
Just think of the employment that could come out of such a step.
Seeing so many airlines overfly Waterford surely some of them could land, especially holiday charter's etc.
It would also work for cruise liner's as a pick up and drop off.
As they say it is all in the air.
Work to do now, thanks for reading if nothing else. Foxy

havetoquit

Foxcoverteddy, what a great response and just so full of enthusiasm and good will. Thank you for your wonderful offer to get in touch with Aviation.

I guess Trotter is being more realistic than I am and perhaps he/she is right to be, but until we are absolutely sure that it is an impossibility, I would like to focus on it being possible. Until we have tried every avenue to no avail, we should retain a can do attitude I think.

I too hope that the moderators who read these posts will see immediately that our efforts are not for personal gain, but for the economic good of the whole South East.

With emigration on the increase, I feel strongly that the very least we can do is to make some effort to help those who have to leave this region and their relatives, to have easier access to each other from Britain and beyond. They pay a high price as it is.

There are a large number of men with wives and families who have been forced to take work in UK and try to commute back and forth at least once a fortnight. These people have little enough money left after paying for lodgings, public transport to airport and flight, without having to spend more on the hours of travelling on from Cork or Dublin. They also lose precious hours with their families, if one counts the time involved in a return bus/train journey from the airport.
It would be wrong of us to assume that everyone has a car, particularly since the turn down and many are very dependent on public transport from those airports.

Does anyone think that Waterford local Radio/South East Radio would be worth calling and if you can think of any other bodies we could/should contact, please indicate.

It would be so great to find a way to reach out to those people in Wexford, Kilkenny, Waterford Carlow and the other areas, who are much closer to Waterford than either Cork or Dublin, so maybe we should be thinking in terms of contacting more local radio stations and indeed local TD's in a bid to highlight this.

Judging by how people behave during elections, I feel that short of each county having a number of volunteers to actually knock on doors with a petition, that the actual number who would protest/phone in etc, would be far less than the number who want to, but are hesitant, or shy about such things. Yet, I have found that they are far more vocal and confident about putting forward their views when spoken to in their own environment in a personal non forceful manner. One hopes that just because someone does not use a service themselves, does not mean that they do not want to help those who do. It is basically a matter of public conscience on an issue that is more far reaching than simply less travel hours for the public.

Anyway, we really do need to hear from more people on this board who really care about such issues; even if not from this region, to help with suggestions, motivate others and to bring their own expertise to the table. I doubt that many are so self centered as not to care during these challenging times, when we need to help each other in any way we can.

If moderators can help us to bring this issue to the attention of all members, then I see that as being a very positive beginning, particularly as our numbers are not high enough here to garner the visibility we need to move forward.

foxcoverteddy

Hi, in the Aviation and Aircraft forum of Boards there is a Waterford Airport thread, you need to sit and read all the post's, these people are real experts in respect to Regional airports.
Their input will undoubtedly assist anyones decision as to swhat to do and where to go, in truth I am embarrassed and full of admiration for the posters, there are no idiotic replies, it is an education actually.
Thank you for your encouragement, but I must leave you in the hands of the real experts.
Kind regards Foxy

havetoquit

Thank you very much Foxy and for your interest in this topic, but I do not understand why you should be embarrassed at all. You have been a great contributor to the topic and it was good to have communication with someone else who cared enough to respond.

wellboytoo

New route will be announced tomorrow

Plane Fan

any more details ?
where to?
airline?

wellboytoo

MAN
4 flights per week

Xenophile

Wrong location for airport, subject to too much sea mist and fog. Waterford now has it's M9 to Dublin and Cork is less than 1.5 hours away. No investment of public money is justified.

dzilla

Xenophile wrote: »

Wrong location for airport, subject to too much sea mist and fog. Waterford now has it's M9 to Dublin and Cork is less than 1.5 hours away. No investment of public money is justified.

Cork 1.5 hours away, have a day off, maybe by google maps calculation or if ur driving it at 6am, and zero public transport link to cork airport unless u get the connection at parnell place which would make the journey 3.2 hours. Waterford neither benefits from any of the express intercity routes that go to dublin airport, there are 2 3 hour plus services so if public money wont be invested in linking us to airports its justified in boosting the local airport seeing if only to link us to london and manchester which where always very busy routes

Trotter

Xenophile wrote: »

Wrong location for airport, subject to too much sea mist and fog. Waterford now has it's M9 to Dublin and Cork is less than 1.5 hours away. No investment of public money is justified.

1. Are you aware of statistics relating to weather based disruption at Waterford Airport compared to others? Im assuming your opinion is based on such information?

2. Have you driven legally to Cork Airport from Waterford during the day in under 1.5 hours before? I have tried and failed a number of times.

3. I hope that Waterford Airport's future success is based on private investment so that I don't have to be frustrated by the opinion that seems to prevail in certain quarters that any investment in the South East region is a poor use of public funds.

4. Can you name another city in Ireland where it takes over 1.5 hours to reach an international airport? I'm not saying 'they have it so I want it', but I am asking the question as to why such standards are acceptable for other cities but not for Waterford.

fricatus

FYP... you could say the same about Cork:

Xenophile wrote: »

Wrong location for airport, subject to too much sea mist and fog. Cork now has it's M8 to Dublin and Shannon is less than 1.5 hours away. No investment of public money is justified.

Just on the fog issue, without looking at any statistics whatsoever, I'm prepared to bet that ORK has more fog days than WAT.

I can't find it there now, but there was a great map that showed the catchment areas of all the main airports, and highlighted in pink those areas that were within 1.5 hours of a jet-capable airport. The south-east stood out as being particularly badly served, and it just so happens that Waterford airport is in the right place to fill in the gap, since WAT is central to that whole area east of Dungarvan, south of Laois and basically all of Co Wexford that is outside the 1.5 hour catchment of any of the other airports.

b757

WAT-MAN loaded onto Flybe schedule. Starting 22nd May.

4 weekly, with onward destinations to Norwich, Southampton and Exeter. And possibly more connnections to the routes served from BHX.

Hopefully more to come!

tankbarry

2 flights to Manchester friday coming back sunday perfect for a game on saturday only 154 for 2 thats some price.


lets hope everybody uses this service. 100% better service then Aer Arann ever was

foxcoverteddy

It was not my intention to c ome back as there is a wealth of information on the Aviation Forum under Waterford airport.
However, you are making a case for the airport to expand, but can I ask perhaps tongue in cheek, to let the negativity go, the country is full of it and we should not let it affect our judgement.
Yes Waterford, well my South East Local authority, as i do not welcome the bickering between counties, the quicker we do away with them the better, does need an airport we need tourists and a gateway for everyone to come and go.
The bus operators in the authority area would be required to provide direct links from strategic points to the airport for early flights and late arrivals and of course during the day.
We could do a MOL you either comply or you have no licence to run in our area.
One of the things that is a bother about tourists is the lack, should i say the appauling lack of facilities, we have some of the most beautiful spots in the island, do the tourist buses come near, no because the roads are so narrow and when you get there the place is dead.
Though and perhaps someone might know is there a rake off for coach drivers going to certain places?
I could go on for hours on this but perhaps another time.
Good luck foxy

old gregg

tankbarry wrote: »

2 flights to Manchester friday coming back sunday perfect for a game on saturday only 154 for 2 thats some price.


lets hope everybody uses this service. 100% better service then Aer Arann ever was

Just had a quick look myself. 77.22 return for 1. Mildly more than I'd like to pay to skip over for a night of techno but still pretty decent.

tankbarry

I priced ryanair for the same time and it was 45euro more.......

old gregg

tankbarry wrote: »

I priced ryanair for the same time and it was 45euro more.......

yea but Ryanair throw in all the free luxuries

jonnyfingers

This is a pretty good service for the people of Waterford and the surrounding counties and opens up a lot of opportunities for weekends away in the northwest of England. Besides being able to take in all that Manchester has to offer, catch some football matches, etc. both Alton Towers and Blackpool Pleasure Beach theme parks are on an hour away if you hire a car also.

O Riain

I flew Waterford city to Manchester before and I swear to god the stresslessness of it all was worth at the very least €50 extra. Would do it again in a second.

dzilla

fair play to Graham and Flybe for this. I am so happy I don't have to go to cork or dub now when I need to get to Manchester. last time I flew from Waterford to collect a car in england was totally painless, and cheaper that Aer Lingus from Cork.

Hopefully the south east region gets behind this. Im not expert but don't the FLybe Bombardier have 75 seats?

dzilla

jsut found out it will be dash 8 q400 so 70 odd seats afaik

b757

dzilla wrote: »

jsut found out it will be dash 8 q400 so 70 odd seats afaik

78 Seats..

I hope people use it now after all the complaining :P

foxcoverteddy

All the talk is one way, not only do we want to get away, but we want people to come to us.
It is up to the hotels and the local council and bus companies to make our place as inviting as possible, the shops have got to get involved.
This what I reckon one south eastern local authority, let Flybe offer special deals in any of our Cities and Towns, get rid of the rip off regime. Down to earth, this is a lifeline take it and survive, let it sli[p from your grasp and you will regret it for ever more.
Pull together, not against each other.
Fly Waterford Flybe, Foxy