The owners of Waterford Airport have been offered €30 million in funding from an international investor aiming to ditch a long-running public funding bid to lengthen its runway to attract commercial airlines.
The investor, who is understood to be American, would take a majority share in the airport, which will retain its existing staff.
Local council members have been told that the bid is conditional on the identity of the investor remaining anonymous until the transaction has been approved.
The airport’s shareholders had been in negotiations with the Department of Transport for public funding for a number of years, securing an “expression of support” for a public-private funding agreement in 2019.
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The new plan is said to exclude the Comer Group, who were a central part of the previous funding package but whose involvement was conditional on government funding, according to a source familiar with plan.
Currently a “dominant 37 per cent shareholding”, a departmental assessment found, the Bolster Group will take a minority stake in the new company, Waterford Airport Limited.
Waterford City and County Council, which currently owns a 2 per cent shareholding in the airport, is being asked to cede its share, as well as to transfer a landholding, of more than 100 acres, around the airport to the new company.
The council has contributed more than €1.3 million in ongoing funding to the airport since 2019.
Sources close to the deal have said councillors are not expected to be informed of the identity of the funding partner prior to the vote.
The sentiment among councillors towards the deal is believed to be one of “cautious optimism” and that the motion is expected to be passed.
Councillors received a briefing from the city council executive, with a private workshop to be held on Monday with representatives of the Bolster Group. A vote on whether to accept the investment will be held at a special meeting on October 17th.
The planned development would see the 1,433m-long runway extended by more than 800m and widened to 45m to attract commercial carriers to a new, jet-suitable runway. The airport is also home to a Search and Rescue Service helicopter crew, which will not be affected by the deal.
“It is fantastic to have such private funding in place, removing the need for government money and allowing immediate construction to start,” William Bolster, the founder of the Bolster Group said, urging the council to “seriously consider” the deal.
In August, the Department of Transport was informed that an “alternative investment proposal that did not involve State funding was being considered by the airport”.
The airport’s private shareholders had originally received a commitment for €5 million of public funding to enable the extension when the total cost estimate of the project was €12 million.
Since that commitment, as the airport engaged with the department on public spending guidelines, construction cost inflation led to the cost estimate rising significantly to more than €27 million by 2024.
“Any such proposal of this nature would be a matter for the shareholders of the Airport, which include local authorities (Waterford, Kilkenny and Wexford), to consider,” a spokesperson for the department said. Each of these local authorities currently own a 2 per cent share in the company.
