What airport is that Nigel?…..

Presume you mean Derry, their PSO funding was pulled last January along with Knock, Sligo and Galway, all ending July 21st.

Typo in the original piece – it mistakenly read ‘Derry’ instead of ‘Kerry’. Amended now, apologies for the confusion.

Direct bus services would be far quicker, cheaper and could start in the morning.

Totally agree, while I think funding should be given to all regional airports, places like Donegal should not be chosen over Galway.
Donegal does not have the traffic, Galway does.
Like what was said previously, it’s essential for a lot of business people in Galway as well as Irish people living in the UK, only for Galway Airport I wouldn’t have gotten home at Christmas.

It’s as simple as this, no matter how many people say otherwise. The traffic is there, the business is there and it is keeping a lot of people in jobs. If it closes next year, Aer Arann won’t be long closing after and we can wave goodbye to another few hundred jobs.

Yes it seems “unfair” but they are keeping the Donegal PSO as it was less costly to run, and delivers a return on investment as there is no good road or rail alternative to a remote part of the country. Galway city has Shannon, Knock, rail, express busses, M6, M18, some of the best infrastructure in the country by comparison.

Yes there is demand for air access to the city, but as previously noted the city has 2 other airports and transport many alternatives nearby. The numbers aren’t there, if they were the airport would be able to fund its own operations and maintain a daily London connection.

Despite what you say the airports numbers are down 75% from peak, many routes have gone and Dublin ends in July no airlines are interested in returning. So it seems those Galway tourists and business people have been moving to other services in recent years.

Not looking to bash Galway, would be great if they can cut costs and amintain a reduced service. But the airport needs far more than the annual €1m mentioned, they aren’t putting out the full facts and don’t want to look at the reality.

That may be so if there weren’t two bigger airports either side of Galway and a two new motorways. “This Leo guy” is basing his decision on the findings of a 2 year report from the last Government evaluating all the regional airports. It found poor return on €200m invested by Government over last 10 years. Costs are rising rapidly while services and passenger numbers plummeted at many regionals and advised cutting PSO and various grants.

The report found only 5% of Galway tourists used the airport, the majority used state airports (23% used Ireland West). The IDA also said in the report that local airports weren’t vital but better connections within 1 hour would satisfy multinationals. Aer Arann boss has said the same recently.

The photo was mislabelled in our photo archive – we’ve replaced it now. :)