A NEW airline carrier is waiting in the wings to commence daily flights between Waterford and London Luton beginning on January 27 - the day after the current carrier, Euroceltic, withdraws its service. Final negotiations are underway between the, as yet, unnamed airline, the Board of the South East Regional airport and the Department of Transport. According to informed sources practically everything is now in place to guarantee a Waterford / UK service and secure the thirty jobs at the airport.
The airport faced its latest crisis in early December when Noel Hanley announced that he would be withdrawing the Euroceltic service because of a 1m loss brought about by low passenger numbers.
The airline had hoped to attract 40,000 passengers in 2002 in order to break even on its operations but by the end of the year only 31,000 passengers had been achieved.
Hovering on the brink of closure, the Airport Board sought the assistance of the Minister for Transport, Seamus Brennan and it is understood that financial support might be forthcoming if the air service was supported by people from Waterford and the wider South East.
In the meantime, all the stops were pulled out to identify a new carrier and that work is now virtually completed.
While the future of the cross channel air service is now guaranteed, there is however, no such guarantee for the air sea rescue service currently operating from the Airport and fears are growing that the entire operation may be moved to Cork.
If Waterford is to lose the service, which at present is not econ, it has been claimed that lives could be lost along the Waterford coastline where hundreds of fishermen earn their living. Neil Whittle of the Dunmore East Fishermen's Co- Op said this week that it can come down to a matter of just seconds to either save or lose a life at sea and therefore it was imperative that the rescue service was maintained in Waterford and extended to a 24- hour operation.
All The Best
Doug MacDonald
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