The sod is set to be officially turned on the new \u20ac30 million construction phase of Waterford Airport.<\/p>\n
Today’s event will mark a significant milestone in what is planned to be the eventual resumption of commercial flights to and from the south east of the country.<\/p>\n
Around 140,000 people passed through Waterford Airport annually during its busiest years but there has not been a regular passenger service at the airport since 2016.<\/p>\n
The runway will now be lengthened to over 2,200 metres and widened to 45 metres to accommodate large commercial jet aircraft.<\/p>\n
The series of upgrades will enable the return of commercial passenger services, with a target set of the airport handling upwards of 400,000 passengers annually within three years.<\/p>\n
The upgrade works are set to be begin immediately following the takeover of the airport by US oil billionaire, Kelcy Warren.<\/p>\n
The new operators of the airport expect to make announcements in the final quarter of the year about a “likely pairing” with both an Irish and overseas airline.<\/p>\n
Mr Warren is the chief executive and chairperson of Energy Transfer, one of the largest oil and gas pipeline companies in the US.<\/p>\n
He is investing in the region of \u20ac30 million in the redevelopment of the airport.<\/p>\n
Waterford City and County Council gave the green light for the redevelopment plan at a special meeting last October.<\/p>\n
The council said the proposal would deliver full airport development works set out in an existing business plan without the need for Government funding.<\/p>\n
The terminal building and ground equipment will also be upgraded as part of the plans while the car parking facilities will be expanded.<\/p>\n
Mr Warren subsequently passed a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) screening process.<\/p>\n
Summer 2027 has been earmarked as the possible return date for commercial flights to Waterford Airport following the decade-long hiatus.<\/p>\n
Last month, the shareholders of Waterford Regional Airport Plc voted to wind up the company, allowing Mr Warren to become the main proprietor of the airport under the newly-formed Waterford Airport Ltd.<\/p>\n
William Bolster, the largest shareholder in Waterford Regional Airport Plc, had acted as the key connect between Mr Warren and the current board.<\/p>\n
Mr Bolster previously said the decision by the council to back the takeover plan “paves the way to deliver a vital infrastructure project for the south east”.<\/p>\n
“[This] will not only secure existing jobs but will allow employment to expand with upwards of 100 jobs both on and off site involved during construction,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Once complete, further jobs will be added as scheduled air traffic proceeds,” he added.<\/p>\n
According to Forbes, Mr Warren has a net worth of \u20ac6.8 billion, ranking him within the richest 500 people in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sod is set to be officially turned on the new \u20ac30 million construction phase of Waterford Airport.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-454438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}