A lengthy statement has been issued by the Board of Waterford Airport in response to ongoing controversy on the future of its business case.
There was strong criticism of comments made by Junior Transport Minister James Lawless on the issue in the Dáil which resulted in him apologising on WLR.
In a statement to WLR today, the Board said it is "very conscious of the commentary in the public domain on the proposal to extend the runway at Waterford Airport and welcome the positive engagement with the Minister of State and Department officials in recent days."
The full statement is below ⬇
By way of simple factual record the Board would wish to outline the history and its core position in respect of the proposal and will not be commenting further on the issue.
A proposal to extend the runway was approved in principle by Government in 2019 and required Government approval due to the uniqueness of the proposition relative to any other capital projects whereby private sector funding was being brought to the table.
Due to the time delay in executing the statutory permissions, the intervention of Covid, inflation deriving from the Ukraine War and compliance with Irish Aviation Authority regulations the project could not proceed within the available cost envelope.
As a consequence, the company sought further investment in the airport and have proposed a revised proposal on the very same basis of that of 2019 with a 50:50 split of state and private sector investment, albeit with increased costs reflecting the time lapse from the genesis of the proposition in 2017 to potential execution in 2025.
Moreover, the more recent submissions have included far more comprehensive documentation and included a business case that has been prepared by one of the largest accountancy firms in the state with detailed input from one of the foremost regional aviation experts from the UK.
Even more importantly the business case has been subjected to detailed commercial appraisal by the commercial investors following significant engagement in the aviation market place and the commitment
to investment is testament to this appraisal. The company's view is that this proposal is a revision of the already approved proposal and should be determined as such.
Some queries have been raised about the robustness of the business case option appraisal in respect of demand analysis and exploration of the option to continue use of the airport for a twin propellor route to a
United Kingdom regional city. For clarity we would make the following points on these issues:
Demand Analysis - there is no comprehensive data available publicly to determine air travel patterns at a regional level and some information could only be gleaned by undertaking extensive and expensive market research, the validity of which would be defendant on the questions asked and would suffer from the incapacity to ask questions about a currently available real travel option.
This issue has been addressed in the business case by comparison with Kerry Airport predominantly and historical route data from Waterford, along with detailed interrogation of the potential by the UK regional aviation expert.
Continuation of the existing airport operation with the addition of a regional airline route - Waterford Airport Company has extensive experience in the operation of limited capacity twin propeller aircraft
through the Airport and is satisfied that there is no long term commercial sustainability in the proposition.
It will in reality in our experience add significant operational costs, require significant marketing support to establish the route and yield limited passenger numbers while requiring significant government subvention.
The Board will be further evidencing this view, which we believe to be already evident in the business case, to the Department in the coming days. It is also worth pointing out that the only airports operating without Public Service Obligation scheduled flights in Ireland are those with jet capacity runways and the demise of Galway and Sligo Airports is straight forward evidence of this reality.
Waterford Airport Company would reassure people of its commitment to the continued operation of Waterford Airport and its ambition to create an entity that can genuinely contribute to the economic development of the region and enhancement of connectivity for all its people.
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