Waterford Airport.

The real unit of air travel is the aeroplane routes, not the single passenger.

For everyone in this thread who likes sums.... new 737s have 189 seats, they used to have around 160 (similar to Airbus). A plane landing or departing is 378. One of these a day for a year is 138k passengers (if all full), and two flights everyday tumble out at 276k passangers. We know there is a market for the Waterford to London route, perhaps one other regional UK route. The next step up is a summer route, and one to an international hub (Paris, Amsterdam

Knock currently has Aer Lingus London–Gatwick (ends 25 March 2023 replaced with London–Heathrow) and Ryanair Bergamo, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London–Luton, London–Stansted, Málaga, Manchester, and season routes to Alicante, Cologne/Bonn, Faro, Girona,[Lanzarote and Palma de Mallorca . All these routes were slowly built up over two decades, they are broadly profitable or they would be cut- Ryanair and Aer Lingus are lean enterprises.

Of course, not all planes are full, but airlines, particularly low-cost ones are good at high-load capacities. Nor do they travel every day on every route.

If Knock and Kerry can do it, with their low-density population hinterland, Waterford certainly looks like a winner. The trouble is, Cork and Dublin with all their political might understand that it could eat into their airports. Look at Simon Covney's twitter feed if you wish to see how close he is to Cork airport issues.

Not that I can think of. The question once again is, are they serious?, were they ever serious? and what is in it for them?

There is zero return in a regional airport so very hard to see them getting any return on their investment unless they had other interests in Waterford that would benefit off the back of a commerical operating runway.

I presume government funding would be the only thing stopping them as the plan always seemed to be private investment plus government funding.

If Waterford is such a winner you'd think it would have at least one or two routes at present operated by the likes of Aer Lingus Regional, who could operate from the current facility right now if they wanted to? An extended runway might pull in a couple of Ryanair routes, but that's about it. And that would require significant ongoing government funding just to keep the doors open.

They fly from Belfast City and Cork also. If there isn't even scope for an airline to operate a turboprop on a W route to serve Waterford from a London airport I really don't see how extending the runway is somehow going to turn the place into the next Knock.

Waterford to London at 7am or 7.30 am flight with a return evening flight at 19.00 or 19.30 would work, but the issue with this is you require to base an aircraft which pushes up the cost in running such a service as you need flight crew, cabin crew and engineering based in Waterford, too much overhead.

As the poster above says, aer lingus regional operate Dublin, cork and Belfast where they would already have access to flight crews, cabin crews and engineering services which makes them a more attractive offering.

A drop in service could work but would mean a 10am or 11am flight which means you miss the business travel.

To base an aircraft you could manage a 14.00 or 15.00 flight also but that requires having 3 x flight crew, cabin crew and engineers as you would need two shifts working and one shift on rest.

It's fairly costly in basing an aircraft and then if there is an issue with a plane you have no back up based there so then it's ship passengers off to Dublin or cork where as being based in Dublin or cork they could offer passages flights on another airline.

More money for the regional airports given today. WAT obviously not included, this is becoming another farce at this stage. All the TDs very silent on the airport issue. Maybe we should set up a go fund me it might be faster in getting something delivered.

What are the chances of any work starting this summer?

It’s now or never in regards to the airport. No shortage of money it seems. Hopefully no interference from Cork politics!

I understand that for it to be approved it has to be brought by Minister for Transport Eamonn Ryan to cabinet. Resistance in that quarter hence business plan has had to go through many iterations. It would be no surprise to anyone that Mr Ryan is not an aviation fan with all that implies for the Waterford project. Mr O Cathasaigh TD and Green Party whip has hardly been vocal in his support?

O Cathasaigh has said he won’t support until he has seen the business plan! No suprise here as he is more concerned about cycle lanes in Cork than anything Waterford related. Such a poor performing TD. Can’t see him holding onto his seat next GE.

Ah now, that's a bit unfair. How could you support something before you'd seen the business plan?

.. And 10bn euro of a government surplus this year rising to 26 billion in the next year or two... And all we need is 5 lousy million of our own money to be invested... Because of delays the costs keep going up due to inflation so it is now nearer to 12 million they need from government

.. No problem giving every Tom dick and Harry newcomer 36 million euro a week though.. It's BS.. This is a one off capital investment and not OPEX expenditure..

He's your local representative in Dail Eireann. The Councillors are your local politicians.

The money will be closer to 10 million, but it is very small money in the amounts being spent by the Government. You would have to ask with elections not to far away will the sitting and aspiring TD's be prepared to say no for small beans but with huge potential downside politically to a negative from the Government?