Concerns are growing for the future of Waterford Airport after it emerged that emergency funding from Government is being pulled.
Minister Hildegard Naughton confirmed that the pandemic will now affect future spending on the airport which has suffered from the lack of commercial flights in recent years.
The operational payments helped to ensure essential Search and Rescue services could continue at the airport while the planned runway extension was under construction.
Speaking on KCLR Breakfast earlier today Tom Britton of Marble City Travel in Kilkenny expressed his concerns for the South East region if the airport in Waterford is no longer sustainable, saying “Large multinationals generally own corporate jets, their CEOs, the guys that make the big decisions, fly around in these things and if they can’t land in Waterford, you know if somebody from Apple decided tomorrow if they wanted to open a plant in Kilkenny or Carlow or Waterford and they’re flying from their corporate headquarters out near San Francisco and they want to fly here but if they can’t do that they go ‘what kind of a place is this?’ and it gets skipped”.
He adds it’s important that our elected representatives make themselves fully aware of the importance of this to the entire region, noting “One of the things I did discover in dealing with Government over the last while, for us to try and explain what we were about as travel agents actually took a while so part of it can be just understanding what it’s all about but if you sat down for a day or two you would very quickly see how beneficial the airport is but I would absolutely urge some of the local TDs to grab the ball, run with it, it is longterm the benefit is”.
