Ryanair has delivered a huge shot in the arm for plans to modernise and commercialise Waterford Airport, saying it would consider flying to and from the city once the right infrastructure is in place at ts airport.
Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary said a Waterford-London route could materialise once Waterford Airport is modernised.
The Government has said it remains committed to partly funding the airport development plan.
Waterford Airport hasn’t hosted commercial flights since 2016, but a multi-million euro investment is planned.
Ryanair’s first ever flight – back in 1985 – was from Waterford Airport to London Gatwick.
Mr O’Leary confirmed Ryanair’s interest in Waterford this week, when delivering a PwC report into the airline’s economic contribution to the country.
“We have too many airports now. If they open a jet runway in Waterford, we will probably service Waterford to and from London. However, it eats into Dublin’s catchment area and Cork’s catchment area. That’s because the road network is not so good. Cork and Shannon struggle because now increasingly more and more people living in Nenagh, Fermoy or Mitchelstown will drive to Dublin because Dublin has a wider choice of flights,” Mr O’Leary said.
The PwC report showed that Ryanair and its passengers spend over €1.5bn in the Irish economy every year and the airline supports more than 26,000 jobs annually.
Ryanair also announced a major expansion and investment drive for Ireland over the coming 10 years.
This will see it open a new €8m engineering excellence centre in Dublin and a €50m training centre for pilots and cabin crew in Santry.
It will also spend €10m on a new maintenance hangar in Shannon.
In all, Ryanair has promised to create more than 2,000 new jobs – for pilots, cabin crew, engineers and IT developers – in Ireland by 2030.
