Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O\u2019Leary has said it is \u201clikely\u201d the airline will operate a small number of weekly services from Waterford Airport once major upgrade works are completed.<\/p>\n
A \u20ac30 million investment proposal to extend the runway and upgrade airport infrastructure was approved by Waterford City and County Council earlier this week. The project, fully funded by a US private investor, aims to restore commercial passenger flights to the South East for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n
Speaking to RT\u00c9 News<\/a>, Mr O\u2019Leary said Ryanair would \u201ccertainly look at operating some commercial flights into Waterford if there\u2019s a jet runway and as long as it is free.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cIt is likely, I would think, we might put in a London flight. I think maybe you’d start off maybe two or three flights a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. We’ve said this to them in writing before \u2014 if you build a jet runway, we’ll certainly look at maybe linking into London, two or three times a week, and we’ll see where it goes from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if Ryanair would consider operating a daily service from Waterford, Mr O\u2019Leary said it would be \u201chighly unlikely.\u201d He added: \u201cI could be surprised, and I could be wrong, and maybe it might sustain a daily flight. I can’t see us ever basing an aircraft in Waterford.\u201d<\/p>\n The Council says construction is due to begin early next year, taking around 12 months to complete. In a statement, it said the investment will \u201cpave the way for the return of scheduled passenger services by the end of 2027, with a target of handling upwards of 400,000 passengers annually within five years.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Mr O\u2019Leary dismissed that target as \u201cpie in the sky\u201d, saying Waterford Airport is \u201cnot a commercial proposition.\u201d<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s not a commercial proposition, not because there is anything wrong with Waterford, it\u2019s just in the immediate catchment area of both Cork and Dublin. The problem with Waterford is that it is less than a two-hour drive to Cork and less than a two-hour drive to Dublin. Ultimately, Waterford is not a commercial proposition, and that\u2019s because there\u2019s nothing wrong with Waterford, it\u2019s just on the wrong side of the city and it\u2019s in the catchment area of Cork and Dublin.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr O\u2019Leary said the regional airport will likely be limited to \u201cvery small frequencies or very small schedules.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI have never criticised Waterford Airport, by the way, we wish them well,\u201d he said. \u201cUltimately, the challenge is we have too many airports in this country and the bigger ones cannibalise the smaller ones.\u201d<\/p>\n For the latest Waterford\u00a0News<\/a><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/b>Sport<\/a>,<\/a><\/b>\u00a0tune into WLR News on the hour and download the WLR App for news on demand.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryanair Group Chief Executive Michael O\u2019Leary has said it is \u201clikely\u201d the airline will operate a small number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,19,17,63112],"class_list":{"0":"post-144163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-waterford-airport"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115433373899891277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}