The present lack of air transport facilities in the midlands could be rectified if a group of local flying enthusiasts succeed in developing the region's first commercial airport.
Established as a private concern some five years ago, the Athlone Aero Club is currently developing a site at Doon in Co Offaly as an 800-metre airstrip which should come into operation within the next couple of months.
However, business and political interests in the area are exploring the possibility of a commercial operation being based on the same site to serve not just the rapidly expanding town of Athlone but also the surrounding counties of Offaly, Westmeath, Longford and Roscommon.
The airstrip is on property belonging to a local land-owner, Mr Peter Mooney, who has offered up to 200 acres for the development. An Athlone businessman, Mr John Keenan, who is also PRO of the aero club, points out that at present anyone in the region who wishes to catch a flight must travel either to Dublin or Galway, in both instances a journey of at least two hours.
While he emphasised that the airstrip at Doon was not a public development, he said he and his fellow flying enthusiasts wondered "Can you sow the seeds for something more than just a private club?" Local representatives certainly show a considerable degree of enthusiasm for the concept. The Fine Gael TD Mr Charlie Flanagan said that although the present National Development Plan "appears to rule out the development of a regional airport for the midlands" he is not discouraged.
Mr Flanagan said that the region needed just such a "flagship development project" in order to help the midlands develop its own distinctive identity as well as assist in the creation of better infrastructure in this part of the State.
For a commercial airport to be established, he conceded, the National Development Plan would have to be amended, "but why is it so preposterous to have an addendum?"
Mr Flanagan suggests that the Midlands Regional Authority, based in Tullamore, might be the ideal organisation to undertake research and a feasibility study of the matter.
The authority's director, Mr Jim Stone, while saying he does not at the moment see where the funding for a new airport would come from, agrees that "oftentimes, new circumstances arise which force a chance of view. I'm sure the Government would be open to suggestions on how to improve the infrastructure in this region."
An Offaly county councillor, Ms Marcella Corcoran Kennedy, also insists that such a development would be of considerable benefit to west Offaly, which has suffered from rising unemployment and declining population during the past decade.
Until the mid-1980s both the ESB and Bord na Mona were major employers in the area, but this was no longer the case, Cllr Corcoran Kennedy said.
She is a member of a task force set up by the local authority to examine how the economic and demographic decline could be reversed.
While west Offaly could boast approximately 1,600 jobs 15 years ago, by 2005 the expectation is that employment opportunities will have dropped to less than a fifth of this. She describes herself as optimistic that the new airstrip could be developed into a regional airport, particularly since it is situated less than 10 miles from Athlone and is relatively close to the N6 route linking Galway and Dublin. Another Offaly councillor who lives close to the airstrip, Ms Connie Hanniffy, is somewhat more cautious about the site's possibilities, commenting: "It's all at a very early stage".
However, she adds: "In the long term, there could be the possibility for a small air taxi service here.
"I'd see that as being for both people and freight and, as a result of this, having a bit of warehousing as well. I feel that it's a project worthy of consideration." A great deal depends on whether any local businesses will undertake responsibility for the project. Mr Keenan, who points out that Athlone was home to an airstrip as far back as the early 1920s, stresses that the primary interest of the local aero club is flying and not looking after a commercial operation. Another organisation or individual would have to approach the relevant authorities about the airstrip developing into a more substantial concern.
But he notes: "Something needs to be done to alleviate the conditions at Dublin Airport. If we got a fraction of what is being spent there, it could ease the burden of a lot of people in the midlands".
The aero club has erected a temporary structure to act as a control area and will be applying to the planning office of Offaly County Council for permission for a permanent structure. Otherwise, according to the county secretary, Ms Bernadette Kinsella, "No information has been received by us yet, and we don't have any kind of planning application".
A spokesman for the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said that while a group of local people did meet her about the matter more than a year ago, she had not since heard anything further on the subject.