Waterford Airport.

Teebor15

Masala wrote: »

Again ...what is it?? Share capital or loans??

You're desperate for this to not go ahead, yourself and your fellow detractors.

I'd say if does get the nod you'd be like the Wicked witch of West in the Wizard of Oz when she gets the bucket of water thrown over her!

notharrypotter

Masala wrote: »

Again ...what is it?? Share capital or loans??

Freebie

Johnny901

notharrypotter wrote: »

There is no way that Waterford can ever compete at an acceptable price point.

Wishful thinking and an election in the offing should not be the deciding criteria

I think if Waterford has an investor or investors willing to put 5 million in the pot then this is not just "parishpump politics" in play.

notharrypotter

Johnny901 wrote: »

I think if Waterford has an investor or investors willing to put 5 million in the pot then this is not just "parishpump politics" in play.

I find it fascinating that a private " investor" has 5 million to throw away.
The number of passengers required to cover the ongoing costs is a multiple by a factor of 10 of the best year ever in Waterford airport's history of passenger numbers.

I suspect the "business" plan is pie in the sky numbers in terms of passenger growth.

If an "investor" has 5 million they do not want anymore I will gladly volunteer to take it off their hands.😉

curmudgeonly

notharrypotter wrote: »

I find it fascinating that a private " investor" has 5 million to throw away.
The number of passengers required to cover the ongoing costs is a multiple by a factor of 10 of the best year ever in Waterford airport's history of passenger numbers.

I suspect the "business" plan is pie in the sky numbers in terms of passenger growth.

If an "investor" has 5 million they do not want anymore I will gladly volunteer to take it off their hands.😉

Read that again harry, it just sounds like sour grapes, Live and let live fella.

JCX BXC

curmudgeonly wrote: »

Read that again harry, it just sounds like sour grapes, Live and let live fella.

Or reality sadly.

Muttley79

Glass is always half empty with most of the commentators on Waterford city forum,constantly putting hurdles in the way instead of finding solutions,constantly begrudging other people or when something happens knock it down saying sure that won't work.no wonder Waterford is the way it is,somebody comes up with a solution to try make things good in this county and the usual neddy know all's say sure that won't work.if Waterford people are fighting amongst themselves if the south east region of Wexford Kilkenny and Waterford are constantly trying to get one over on it's neighbour well what chance have we got as a region to look for investment and our fair share from the government in Dublin

azimuth17

Was just about to say the same thing. As an irregular poster here it is obvious that no sooner than someone says we should have something than there are a horde of people saying, no, too big, wont work, not enough this or that or footfall or catchment or whatever. Having looked at the posts I begin to believe that we have a lot of people not from Waterford who are posting destructive opinion here. Something rotten going on?

Deiseen

azimuth17 wrote: »

Was just about to say the same thing. As an irregular poster here it is obvious that no sooner than someone says we should have something than there are a horde of people saying, no, too big, wont work, not enough this or that or footfall or catchment or whatever. Having looked at the posts I begin to believe that we have a lot of people not from Waterford who are posting destructive opinion here. Something rotten going on?

Look, its no coincidence why the SE has no Uni, no proper airport, lack of medical facilities, no IDA visits. Etc etc

You then say "Hey! We need these things, we need the investment as this is critical infrastructure for the population!"

Then we are told to "sort out 'A' before you can get 'B' but you can't have any money from the government to do it!".

Waterford has been decimated in the last 20-25 years while the government stood by. If it happened in Cork, Galway, Limerick or Dublin then they would have invested huge amounts to prop them up (they did anyway despite them not suffering same downfall as us).

The South East could contribute a hell of a lot more to the country but we need huge investment. Huge investment that many people just dont want to give us, so that are happy for us to be undereducated and underpaid with lads literally dying in ambulances on the way to Cork. But hey! As long the country is doing well right?

Johnny901

Muttley79 wrote: »

Glass is always half empty with most of the commentators on Waterford city forum,constantly putting hurdles in the way instead of finding solutions,constantly begrudging other people or when something happens knock it down saying sure that won't work.no wonder Waterford is the way it is,somebody comes up with a solution to try make things good in this county and the usual neddy know all's say sure that won't work.if Waterford people are fighting amongst themselves if the south east region of Wexford Kilkenny and Waterford are constantly trying to get one over on it's neighbour well what chance have we got as a region to look for investment and our fair share from the government in Dublin

You will find that some of these negative commentators are not from Waterford Look at what threads they are following and you will see what I mean.

From talking to some friends in Waterford area, most, if not all, are very positive about the future plans for the airport.

debok

azimuth17 wrote: »

Was just about to say the same thing. As an irregular poster here it is obvious that no sooner than someone says we should have something than there are a horde of people saying, no, too big, wont work, not enough this or that or footfall or catchment or whatever. Having looked at the posts I begin to believe that we have a lot of people not from Waterford who are posting destructive opinion here. Something rotten going on?

Probably is alot of posters not from Waterford but in general there is alot of begrudgers in Waterford. The attitude of rather give out and complain about things. The amount of times you see negative comments about new developments or new festivals is ridiculous. The first comment is Jesus the scumbags will love that. as if no other area has scumbags. Just give things a chance. But we need to start making ourselves heard nationally more because in this day in age and with those that are running the country now we will be forgotten.

ExoPolitic

I used to fly out of Waterford a lot, was much handier.

Would be nice to have flights which make Waterford a day trip from London (think about business coming in from the biggest financial centre in Europe for meeting etc) rather than having to fly via Dublin and turning the trip in to a 2 to 3 day one.

Accessibility of the region will improve business, there is no doubt about that. It would also benefit a lot of Waterford/Wexford/Kilkenny people who have business interests in the UK too.

The side benefit to all this is the tourism and social benefits of being able to visit family much easier in the UK.

The airport could however do with a shuttle bus to the city (divert a 360 Tramore/Waterford bus to fit the flight schedule? they're every 15 minutes after all), this was one thing that I saw put people off of using the airport in the past from the UK.

Masala

ExoPolitic wrote: »

I used to fly out of Waterford a lot, was much handier.

Would be nice to have flights which make Waterford a day trip from London (think about business coming in from the biggest financial centre in Europe for meeting etc) rather than having to fly via Dublin and turning the trip in to a 2 to 3 day one.

Accessibility of the region will improve business, there is no doubt about that. It would also benefit a lot of Waterford/Wexford/Kilkenny people who have business interests in the UK too.

The side benefit to all this is the tourism and social benefits of being able to visit family much easier in the UK.

The airport could however do with a shuttle bus to the city (divert a 360 Tramore/Waterford bus to fit the flight schedule? they're every 15 minutes after all), this was one thing that I saw put people off of using the airport in the past from the UK.

Don’t see much FDI setting up in Kerry or Mayo in last 10 years as a result of London services. In fact Kerry Group shifted their operations to Naas to be near Dublin and it’s international connections A case of “build it and they will come” is only in Kevin Costners dreams.

Dum_Dum

Masala wrote: »

Don’t see much FDI setting up in Kerry or Mayo in last 10 years as a result of London services. In fact Kerry Group shifted their operations to Naas to be near Dublin and it’s international connections A case of “build it and they will come” is only in Kevin Costners dreams.

What's your solution to the disconnected SE region then?

Masala

Dum_Dum wrote: »

What's your solution to the disconnected SE region then?

Waterford has the same problems as the rest of the counties outside the Pale. I don’t have the answers as to why Leitrim is bottom of the employment/ industry stats either. All I am saying is that going around saying pumping €12m into an airport is gonna bring vast riches in investment and tourists and that Ryanair will divert a rake of flights out of Dublin as a result cos Waterford can offer passengers more is way off the mark.

Deiseen

Masala wrote: »

Dum_Dum wrote: »

What's your solution to the disconnected SE region then?

Waterford has the same problems as the rest of the counties outside the Pale.    I don’t have the answers as to why Leitrim is bottom of the employment/ industry stats either.   All I am saying is that going around saying pumping €12m into an airport is gonna bring vast riches in investment and tourists and that Ryanair will divert a rake of flights out of Dublin as a result cos Waterford can offer passengers more is way off the mark.

Waterford isn't just another county/town though. It's a gateway city and is supposed to be the main economic driver of the entire SE region.
Unlike Leitrim, we are are supposed to be the ones with the University, the Regional Hospital, the bulk of IDA jobs/visits (to SE), the airport, etc etc.
If we don't have these things, then the whole region doesn't have these things and it's entire economy suffers. 1 in 4 young people currently leave the South East due to this underinvestment. So this is not a single county/town suffering, it's a whole region. Can you understand that?

Dum_Dum

Masala wrote: »

Waterford has the same problems as the rest of the counties outside the Pale. I don’t have the answers as to why Leitrim is bottom of the employment/ industry stats either. All I am saying is that going around saying pumping €12m into an airport is gonna bring vast riches in investment and tourists and that Ryanair will divert a rake of flights out of Dublin as a result cos Waterford can offer passengers more is way off the mark.

The phrase used outside of this region is 'investing £12m'. I'd like the same vocabulary to be used for this region too please.


The disconnection of this region is unique 'outside of the Pale'. It's population centres are not served by an airport; other population centres 'outside of the Pale' are.


So, now the problem has been identified, have you any solutions to offer?

marno21

Trying to compare Waterford to Leitrim in order to compare the merits of an airport straight away makes nonsense of an argument.

I've said here before, business is only part of it, and business extends beyond multinationals, local business people may need to go to London too.

Inbound tourism is one area Waterford could exploit, as has been excellently done by Kerry

road_high

marno21 wrote: »

Trying to compare Waterford to Leitrim in order to compare the merits of an airport straight away makes nonsense of an argument.

I've said here before, business is only part of it, and business extends beyond multinationals, local business people may need to go to London too.

Inbound tourism is one area Waterford could exploit, as has been excellently done by Kerry

Leitrim arguably fares better as it has the excellent Knock airport closeby.

Kerry is a major tourist destination in its own right added to its relative isolation helps greatly the case for the airport (I always think of it as a little like Cornwall or the Highlands in that respect).
WAT by contrast can only survive by naturally eating into what Dublin and Cork view as their feeder hinterlands which as always been part of its problem as it's so difficult compete on scale, choice and costs.

Deiseen

road_high wrote: »

marno21 wrote: »

Trying to compare Waterford to Leitrim in order to compare the merits of an airport straight away makes nonsense of an argument.

I've said here before, business is only part of it, and business extends beyond multinationals, local business people may need to go to London too.

Inbound tourism is one area Waterford could exploit, as has been excellently done by Kerry

Leitrim arguably fares better as it has the excellent Knock airport closeby.

Kerry is a major tourist destination in its own right added to its relative isolation helps greatly the case for the airport (I always think of it as a little like Cornwall or the Highlands in that respect).
WAT by contrast can only survive by naturally eating into what Dublin and Cork view as their feeder hinterlands which as always been part of its problem as it's so difficult compete on scale, choice and costs.

A good Waterford airport would be a massive boon for Kilkenny.

road_high

Deiseen wrote: »

A good Waterford airport would be a massive boon for Kilkenny.

I agree it would be very good for all Waterford, KK and Wexford in particular. These are where the bulk of passengers originate/d. I'd love to see it as developed as Knock or Kerry but how that will happen and funded is the big question. We are in different times as regards public funding- projects like this tend to be forensically analyzed these days.

Deiseen

road_high wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

A good Waterford airport would be a massive boon for Kilkenny.

I agree it would be very good for all Waterford, KK and Wexford in particular. These are where the bulk of passengers originate/d. I'd love to see it as developed as Knock or Kerry but how that will happen and funded is the big question. We are in different times as regards public funding- projects like this tend to be forensically analyzed these days.

This has been stated time and time again. KK, WCC and Wex have committed money and someone is willing to put in a few million.

road_high

Deiseen wrote: »

This has been stated time and time again. KK, WCC and Wex have committed money and someone is willing to put in a few million.

I see the local councils and funding mentioned but hard to see where they'd get that- they're broke!

Deiseen

road_high wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

This has been stated time and time again. KK, WCC and Wex have committed money and someone is willing to put in a few million.

I see the local councils and funding mentioned but hard to see where they'd get that- they're broke!

There are always means to get money especially if there could be a return from it.

notharrypotter

Deiseen wrote: »

There are always means to get money especially if there could be a return from it.

Genuinely curious now.
How do you see there been a return from it?

Deiseen

notharrypotter wrote: »

Deiseen wrote: »

There are always means to get money especially if there could be a return from it.

Genuinely curious now.
How do you see there been a return from it?

Increased tourists as you are now flying directly into the south east, rather than having to travel there. Tourism spend/numbers in SE is way down and needs all the help it can get.

Additional business - there are a number of reasons why the SE suffers from lack of FDI, one is university, which we are working on and one is access. If you have an international airport within 45 minutes of the counties in the SE then it strengthens the attractiveness of a company looking to set up here. The whole region currently gets less visits than Galway.

As previously said, the region needs help. There's 500,000 people here with under supplied education, pay, jobs, health etc.

You can come on here with your arguments against but you won't change the fact that there has been a lack of investment in the SE and that we are suffering as a result. This needs to change and one of the steps is the airport, because we have had enough.

tbarry31

Hopefully it happens when I worked there for nearly 10 years we always got news something was happening but nothing ever did we got to meet loads of rich folks with their own planes and some companies would fly into Waterford privately ( Honeywell ) flew in a few times. Flying from Dublin last week for me was a long process for which I would rather pay a little extra to fly from Waterford.

You might get other rich people to start using the airport again if the runway was extended they would be able to get their aircraft in then ( we would have staff of the rich folks telling us they need that big runway). There would be more private operations due to the extension and some aircraft wouldn't have to divert if a runway was wet which has happened a few times.

On the note of Ryanair using Waterford I think 2,3 aircraft to be based in Waterford would not interfere with their other routes they always have planes sitting around in the UK and Europe. I think they would maybe take a few flights from dublin not by cancelling routes in Dublin just by lowering times per day they use dublin and that wouldn't be much of a effect on dublin.

From the plans that were drawing up years back a small few slight changes would give us a lovely little airport.

Hopefully the airport get's what they need and I believe it would open a few doors for the wider southeast

Masala

On the note of Ryanair using Waterford I think 2,3 aircraft to be based in Waterford would not interfere with their other routes they always have planes sitting around in the UK and Europe. I think they would maybe take a few flights from dublin not by cancelling routes in Dublin just by lowering times per day they use dublin and that wouldn't be much of a effect on dublin.

...... Luv it!!

JCX BXC

Masala wrote: »

...... Luv it!!

That's a classic alright!

'lets move aircraft from really profitable routes, to a very marginal airport, and while we're at it, let's make it our second biggest base in ROI!'

Fat chance

road_high

Deiseen wrote: »

There are always means to get money especially if there could be a return from it.

Would they be in some kind of partnership running it? Businesses are already under pressure to pay rates as it is, I doubt many would relish more! Their budgets are under severe prsssure especially with the housing crisis.