Seaplane service to link Foynes with Galway. (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0808/1224252232596.html)

Interesting idea, and appeals to the romantic in me - but realistic? The operator's own website is pretty basic, hasn't been spellchecked yet, and proposes to start Dublin-Cork, Dublin-Belfast, Dublin-Inishmore, and a few other routes once the Foynes-Galway metropolitan axis is fully served...

Any connection to Harbour Air that operates around Vancouver & British Columbia?

Well, the link reveals:

The service will be a joint venture with Harbour Air Malta, which will be supplying expertise and the aircraft, a 14-seater single-engine Otter seaplane.

"We Harbour Air Ireland Ltd declare the right of all the people of Ireland to the connectivity of Ireland via its lakes, rivers, harbours, and sea estuaries."

What sort of crummy mission statement is that... the spelling on the website is dreadful, too. :suspect:

Sounds like the statement of someone who hasn't looked out the window in the last twenty years. On a regular basis Ireland gets the strongest winds, swells and lowest cloud in Europe. How could anybody propose a scheduled VFR seaplane operation in Ireland. Are they going to have fuel farms at each point, have they applied for planning for same, will they be let, have they considered the difficulty in accessing aviation fuel other than from an airport? Maybe I'm missing something!

I think these guys have reasearched this project for five years, they've got some money behind them and now it's a matter of an aircraft/maintenance and a base. The planned partnership with HA is not going to work so they are going to go it alone from what I understand. I wish them the best as it's a beautiful country which has as yet untapped seaplane potential. I know the weather issues are there so it's gotta be seasonal and possibly tied in with other operators ie helicopters and tour operators in order to provide security to the business long term. I don't know but I think if they spend the money on the right things from the start then it's possible.