Waterford Airport.

Double edge sword though. Very limited in attracting an airline with such a limited runway.

Options? Aer Lingus Regional (emerald airways), Logan Air, eastern Airways (3 aircraft), the last two only fly to UK airports none to the republic of Ireland.

Who can they attract? Even emerald are relatively new to the market and at present it makes sense to fly to/from where they already have a base.

Unless Waterford was a drop in service then you need to base, engineers, flight crew, catering, cleaning crew, expensive setup for a regional airline

Logan currently don't fly into any Irish airport, so having them operator a WAT service will require some sort of obtaining an Irish licences or operators licences or some sort.

Really the only option is emerald airlines. At present they are ensuring to fullfil the aer Lingus regional slots, the chances of them expanding a WAT - MAN flight is slim at present as they need to meet their contractual agreement with Aet Lingus

Currently aer lingus regional only operate from Dub, Cork and Donegal. They are not even in Knock, Shannon or Kerry.

Fact is Waterford can possible attract one airline (emerald airlines) who at present are not at scale to expand outside of their contract obligations with Aet Lingus regional.

Even attracting an airline such as emerald you are at the mercy of regional Airlines which can be difficult, Aer Arann, Stobart Air, Flybe, all airlines that were doing well and went to the wall, there is no future in solely depending on a regional airline unfortunately.

That Loganair would have to fill in a few forms to fly from Waterford is definitely the worst excuse I've heard yet! They've flown from Ireland plenty in the past with no issues. They currently fly from LDY so are no stranger to the island. And contrary to your view on the viability of regional airlines they are profitable and growing.

That they don't appear to think it's viable for them to fly a route or two from Waterford tells it's own story. Same with Emerald/Aer Lingus, if they thought there was anything viable for them in Waterford, they'd be in there. They don't because they know the airport is a dead duck.

Also the topic of Waterford airport has been discussed over and over on this thread, we'll have those in favour and those against and to be honest that is neither here nor there.

The issue is, for the past 10 years, the current government have stated how much of a benefit Waterford airport would be to the South East and the benefits that it would bring.

They now have a business proposal sitting on their desk so either back the airport or cut the shite talk and just come out and say "we don't support another airport and we won't fundd Waterford"

Either back up your talk with funding or call it as it is and spot spouting shite.

Well Sligo is closed to commercial traffic and there are no plans to change that that I'm aware of. Presumably they don't go into the other airports because all viable routes that could be served by a regional airline have already been taken by others.

For example Ryanair and Aer Lingus between them serve nine UK routes from Knock. That appears to be the capacity at Knock for UK routes so there's no viable scope for Loganair to go in there. Or Emerald for that matter. Nine UK routes is loads for a regional airport. The difference at Waterford of course is that there are currently zero UK routes and yet there is still evidently no viable scope for Loganair or Emerald to go in there i.e. there appears to be no worthwhile market at all at that airport since the last commercial service ended many years ago.

In an ideal world I'd agree with your second point that the government ought to just come out and say there's no viable future for Waterford without massive upfront and ongoing subvention from the government and that that's not considered an appropriate use of public funding when there are nine operational airports with commercial passenger services on the island already.

But let's be honest, would the average Waterford Airport supporting poster on here go "ah that's fair enough so then, that makes sense" ? Of course they wouldn't, they'd be kicking and screaming as usual. So that's why it's dragging on, bad news is hard to break to people.

Cllr & Mayor Jody Power talking to WLR earlier about the significance of the airport on the doorsteps across the region….

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/eamon-ryan-poisoned-air-for-green-vote-in-waterford-says-green-party-councillor-363423

Again I don't have much time for Eamon Ryan but there is more than the greens stopping any extension. FG have been in power for 13 years at this stage, the greens can't be the only scapegoat.

Waterford is closer to Europe also so you're saving a bit of airplane fuel.

The population of the south east is about 500,000 so in theory should be enough to sustain a small airport.

Ireland's population is growing rapidly according to article today so maybe we do need a new airport.

We'll be 5.5m in a couple of years. 6m in the early 2030s.

I bet they'll announce the airport just before the next general election.

I still suspect we'll see a positive announcement in the run up to a GE, then once the election passes it will be put on the back burner, really really really hope I am wrong and it just gets the green light and goes ahead

It's just all gone so quiet it's been 6 months as posted on here already, surely a decision has to be made soon

Ryan is weak now after the local elections. You can be sure there is also questions within the greens about the future of their leader. Butler now needs to use this weakness to call a stop to Ryan’s personal issue with the airport. One man should not call the shots like this! FF are also in government. FG enough said when it comes to Waterford.

FG has never done anything positive for Waterford I’m under no illusions there. Only hope we have of getting this over the line is if Butler steps up and pushes it within FF. FG hate Waterford you only have to look at SETU,UHW,boundary ext, the list is endless from FG and it’s failures in Waterford.

Other 4 regional cities? 1. Cork, 2. Limerick, 3. Galway, 4. ?

Kilkenny? !!

Some people here do not understand how the airlines they're quoting on their interest in Waterford even work…

Aer Lingus is a hub and spoke airline, Emerald airlines act as their feeder, they are NOT going to base an aircraft or route in Waterford for that reason alone.

Logan Air are a UK based carrier, who only serve to benefit their operation in Scotland, Waterford is not going to help them there, they'd be looking at larger destinations.

Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizz air are the only airlines in this area of the world who operate a point to point network instead who'd remotely be interested.

Easyjet and Wizz won't come here as Ryanair will then out compete them.

Ryanair are the only airline who are feasible, to keep other airlines out of Ireland, this is their goal.

was only talking to a business that would directly benefit from an airport expansion, both of us agreed waterford currently isnt viable as a passenger airport, but probably is viable as a cargo hub, this really should be considered!

Eamonn Ryan is stepping down, probably means there won't be a decision made on the airport until after the election at this stage.

https://www.thejournal.ie/eamon-ryan-stepping-down-as-green-party-leader-6412667-Jun2024/

I thoroughly agree, but given the lack of action thus far I can't see him getting the airport pushed through before the election. Hope I'm wrong though, given it was probably the joint top issue on the doorsteps in the recent election it would be an easy win for the government parties to get it approved before calling to the doorsteps.

A reminder that strategically Ryanair will not allow it's near monopoly across Ireland to be weakened by not serving Waterford. It may prefer not to, but it will turn up.

Be careful listening to O'Leary, watch what he does. Although in fairness to O'Leary he said exactly this to a Dail committee earlier this year.

I take it that extending the runway will allow for additional commercial opportunities such as freight, training, plane repair/maintenance etc?

It doesn't have to solely be passenger flights. That said, would gladly pay the extra to fly from Waterford rather than Dublin.