An increase in jobs and services at the South East Regional Airport in Waterford have been promised following the takeover of Euroceltic Airways by a local businessman.
Mr Noel Hanley says job numbers at the airport, which almost closed last year because of lack of business and investment, will rise from 58 to about 100, while new routes will include weekend flights in the summer to Nantes in north-west France.
Mr Hanley, who is chief executive of a Waterford shipping company, Global Ocean Technologies, has acquired a majority shareholding in the airline, which had suffered heavy losses in recent months.
He is to move Euroceltic's base from Luton to Waterford and establish an aircraft maintenance operation at the airport. A small shareholding in the airline has also been acquired by a Waterford business consortium which invested in the company late last year.
Although Euroceltic, which began its Waterford-Luton service last February, had succeeded in attracting significant passenger numbers, its pricing structure did not bring in sufficient revenue. "It was selling too many tickets at cheap rates," according to a source.
As well as twice-daily flights to Luton, Euroceltic also ran a weekly service to Liverpool. No other airline uses the airport, which had been left without a service for two months before Euroceltic's arrival.
A financial package agreed with the Government and local interests saved the airport from closure last March.
Mr Hanley said it was vital for the south-east to have a direct air link with Britain and continental Europe and he was confident that both the airline and the airport had a viable future.
The transfer of the airline's technical and maintenance services would be with the co-operation of the British Civil Aviation Authority, and would involve the erection of a new building at the airport with 40,000 square feet of hangar space, he said.
Mr Nicholas Fewer, the deputy chairman of the airport's board, welcomed the takeover but said lobbying of Government ministers and officials would continue to secure the level of investment needed to help the airport develop.
"Unlike the regional airports in Kerry, Galway and Mayo, this facility has never received the type of funding that is needed to move it to the next level where larger jet aircraft can be accommodated."
In promoting the airport to the public, it is understood that greater emphasis is to be placed on the possibility of using Luton as a gateway to a large number of continental destinations served from there by EasyJet.
The president of Waterford Chamber of Commerce, Mr Nick Donnelly, said the Euroceltic service had "really caught on" with the public and plane occupancy had been excellent.
"The chamber sees this acquisition as a move to build on this growth and we urge everybody in the south-east to check out the Euroceltic schedule first when making travel plans," he said.
