Waterford Airport.

What will everyone here do when a different government get in to power and decide not to go forward forward with this project either? Building new airports or reopening closed ones is only going to get harder and harder to justify as time goes on. The Greens are a bunch of useless wasters but I doubt whether they're still in government or not will have any impact on Waterford Airport.

The future of Irish aviation is in consolidating airports that have been shown to operate successfully and continue to do so. Not wasting money on ones that haven't been able to find an airline to operate a single commercial service for close to a decade.

It would be easy enough for any of the regional airlines to operate services from Waterford if they wanted to using W routings (e.g. Loganair could fly EDI-WAT-London-WAT-EDI and provide two routes at Waterford in the process. Aer Lingus Regional could serve Manchester (DUB-MAN-WAT-MAN-DUB). It's telling that none of them do.

They're in trouble everywhere except Dublin City. Went out on the first count in 3x North Kildare areas, sitting councillor in one and had had one in the other area til she resigned.

Logan Air don't also see, Cork, Shannon, Kerry, Knock, Sligo, Donegal or Dublin as options, why not? It's obviously easier for them to operate within the UK, hence why they are operating from Derry.

Emerald also do not see Kerry, Shannon, knock, Sligo as options why not? This are still a relatively new airline and have the security of aer Lingus regional and that is where they will focus their attention.

I do agree the airport should be doing all they can to attract emerald airlines but that comes with its own problems, you get a drop in service even daily. The overhead of one flight a day is huge on the airport, fire category, security etc...... for relatively small passenger numbers. You also have the issue if a drop in service ahad a technical issue you are transporting passengers to cork it Dublin, transferring engineers to Waterford to fix the issue, all too costly for a regional airline

They have been down the road of regional Airlines and have been burnt in the past, hence why they are putting their eggs in a runway extension.

With the exception of Donegal no other regional airport is operating commerical flights on the island of Ireland with a 1400meter runway.

Ryanair used to fly London Waterford Galway and back and it was so convenient.

I wouldn't be kicking and screaming, I would be annoyed as even with 9 airports I do feel Waterford would work. Worst case I would see it getting back to its 07,08,09 passenger figures of over 100k.

The airport is already a functional airport, SAE base, private flights, occasional cargo flights, aero club and flight school.

The money is small, €7 million, even say a subvention of €400k a year, it's tiny money so the benefit it could bring to Waterford and surrounding counties.

Not supporting Waterford and saving €7 million and 400k a year, that money would just be blown elsewhere. To date government policy has denied Waterford of a stand alone University (despite numerous independent reports supporting a stand alone Uni), they have held UHW back at every chance (the only model 4 hospital that falls under another hospital), why not take a chance with the airport and see what happens.

Let's say government spend €12 million from on the infrastructure and support for a few years and it fails, sell the land for a couple of million, recoup some losses and move on.

Greens not doing too well is only good news for the airport. Ryan will be weakened by this result so now it’s time Butler and FF get this over the line. Greens have no right to stop this project.

This paradigm is severely outdated. A more economic model is developing stronger regional airports. Dublin airport is only as big as it is because the economic model we have treats the country as a single hinterland of Dublin. Dublin with a 15 or twenty million a year cap and a few regional airports with a million or two million a year would be much more sustainable and take millions of car journeys a year out of an over heated Dublin.

Jody Power on WLR laid his council election defeat squarely on Eamon Ryan. Didn’t pull any punches, saying it was all he heard on the doorsteps.

Mark Casey tried to tone it down but he is dreaming if he thinks the public will believe his line blaming the developers more than the minister.

The clock is ticking big time now. FG/FF also have to consider that when their convenient current GP shield is blown away, they will be in the immediate firing line. Time to deliver or get off the pot.

Week 26. The half year anniversary.

Proposal sat for half a year on Minister's desk.

State apparatus maliciously misdirected into stalling project instead of finding a solution for the only region in the country without access to mass aviation.

Vacant looks abound regarding solutions from those tasked with finding answers. Instead: shills, yes-men and lackeys fully sharpened on social media; their job to engage turbo-charged finger-pointing mode away from Government inaction.

On the nail.

Cynthia Ni Mhurchu has been elected so I would suggest that people begin e-mailing her to remind her of her commitment to Waterford Airport.

Unfortunately there will be no decision between now and elections,if they're talking about government running it's full term till next March it could be honestly this time 12 months before an answer could be provided over its future.its how Waterford has been dealt with the last 20 years.kick the can down the road further while the other 4 regional cities are thriving.its infuriating

One man isn't calling the shots though, it suits government to lay the blame on the greens here.

All Leos positive talk of how beneficial the airport would be and how they government want to see if happen, at any stage he could have said do it, we'll fund it.

People then fall for it, greens get annihilated and FG/FF sit back smiling.

Ryan is the line minister and it is up to him to bring the memo to cabinet to get the airport sanctioned. They may force him to do so now after the green drubbing in elections. The GP locally are in absolute shock I believe, with years of effort down the tubes.

Fine Gael, ah it rhymes with F off as far as Waterford is concerned. How people in this city vote for that party is beyond any rational understanding. The SETU situation is unbelievable in the sense of a modern European democracy. The failure to invest in WIT since 2011 is a national scandal. Unfortunately, Mary Butler ranks among the worst TDs this area has ever, ever had. Politically appalling.