IT BEGAN operating with a 25-minute flight from Dublin using a 30-seater aircraft – but 30 years on Waterford Airport offers international services to Britain and France which are availed of annually by about 100,000 people.
Located at Killowen, 8km from Waterford city centre, the airport was developed in response to a recognition by business interests in the southeast that the region was losing out when it came to attracting new industries.
The airport’s chief executive, Graham Doyle, said “through a great deal of hard work by many people” the airport had reached the milestone of operating for three decades.
Passenger numbers had risen from 26,000 a year in 2001 to a peak of 145,000 in 2008. Today between 90,000 and 110,000 passenger pass through each year, with many flying to London to work and returning at weekends.
The airport employs more than 60 people directly. A further 113 are employed by airport-based companies, including the Irish Coast Guard Search and Rescue Team and the Pilot Training College of Ireland.
Mr Doyle said a report by consultants Colin Buchanan Partners in 2009 found Waterford Airport supported about 560 jobs in the southeast. He said the airport looked to the future “with confidence based on what has been achieved to date and the level of support the airport enjoys from passengers and stakeholders across the southeast”.
The airport provides international routes to London Southend, Luton and Manchester in Britain (with Birmingham to be added next year), and Lorient in France, with carrier Aer Arann Regional.