Aran to Galway air service still up in the air

Aer Arann is expected to continue to operate flights between the mainland and the Aran Islands for another year at least.

The contract extension with the Department of Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, will bring some certainty to the air service situation for islanders.

The existing contract was due to end at midnight on Wednesday of this week but negotiations between the company and the department will provide continuity of service until a new tender process is undertaken.

Negotiations over the extension of the contract began on Monday and continued right up to the deadline yesterday.

The department has refused to say when the new tender process will commence.

Gaeltacht Minister Joe McHugh, in a terse statement issued last Friday, announced he had cancelled the Public Service Obligation tender process for the award of an air service contract to the three islands.

“It is intended to advise the European Commission of the position as soon as possible and to commence a fresh tender process for the air service,” he said.

The department did not responded to Connacht Tribune queries in relation to the statement and has declined to elaborate on the re-tendering process.

In a statement it simply reiterated that the department “has entered discussions with the existing service provider for the provision of an interim service with a view to enabling the re-tender to take place, while ensuring that there is no disruption in service.”

It would not be drawn on when the re-tender process would commence or finish.

Islanders were due to meet with the minister this week to discuss the issue but that, too, appears to have been postponed.

Paddy Crowe, Inis Óirr Co-Op, and member of SOS (Save Our Air Service), welcomed the decision to cancel the tender, after what he described as a “long and vigorous campaign on behalf of the three Aran Islands”.

He said SOS was now “demanding a central role in the new process” to put the service out to tender. Mr Crowe, on behalf of the SOS committee, also lashed the department for its islands’ policies.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.