Report recommends the closure of Galway airport

Date Published: 13-Jan-2011

BY FRANK FARRAGHER

Galway Airport is facing into its biggest ever battle for survival after a Government report this week recommended its closure and a Minister pulled the plug on critical support funding from next July.

The airport was delivered a double hammer blow on Wednesday night when Transport Minister, Noel Dempsey, confirmed the withdrawal of PSO (Public Service Obligation) funding on the Galway to Dublin Aer Arann service later this year.

In a Department of Transport ‘Value for Money Report on Regional Airports’ report, released around the same time, they recommended the closure of Galway Airport on economic grounds.

The news has sent shock waves through business and industrial circles in the city and region but yesterday, Airport Manager, Joe Walsh, vowed that ‘all the stops would be pulled out’ to ensure the survival of the Airport.

“We are extremely upset at the content and recommendations of the ‘Value for Money’ report which contains a series of inaccuracies and doesn’t factor in the importance of the airport to the economic fabric of the city, county and region,” said Mr Walsh.

He said that it was “disappointment and upsetting” that critical economic information which the airport had supplied to the Dept of Transport report authors had been completely discounted.

“There is compelling economic data and recommendations from bodies like the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the local authorities on the importance of the airport to the region.

“The airport is absolutely critical in terms of the industrial clusters that have developed around the city – the last thing we want to be doing in the current economic climate is to start dismantling the infrastructure that is serving us so well,” said Mr Walsh.

The decision by Minister Dempsey to withdraw the PSO funding from Galway Airport and the report of the Value for Money Committee still has to get Cabinet approval and this weekend there will be intense pressure on Minister Éamon Ó Cuív to ‘pull his weight’ on a critical issue for Galway.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.