There are three reasons why regions campaign so strongly for an airport. The first is simply status, or self-esteem. To those in Connaught "Knock International Airport" has a romance and pride to it that could not have been imagined 20 years ago.
The second reason is to facilitate tourism development. Ireland - North and South - has experienced growth of the order of nine per cent in air passenger movements in the past decade. Even a cursory look at the traffic movements in the airports indicate that much of this growth is on a seasonal basis. The lesson is that tourists want to fly to Ireland: regional airports make the island accessible.
The third reason is to attract inward investment. Dr Cormac McNamara, chairman of Waterford Regional Airport claims that industrialists who want to set up in the region are put off by a three-and-a-half hour drive to Dublin Airport. He cites companies like Waterford Wedgwood which are already in the region but who have associated offices "at the end of a runway in London". It is much more expensive for companies to fly an executive in to Dublin Airport and then get her/him to Waterford than it is to have that person conduct their business in regions close to airports. According to Dr McNamara one company in the region recently costed this at £3,000 per day in company time and effort. Much the same can be said for product shipment off and on to the island.
It is no surprise, therefore, that inward investment is attracted to the vicinities of the larger airports such as Dublin, Cork and Belfast, with Dublin carrying three-quarters of all the Republic's traffic.
Opposing the argument for investment in the regional airports is the report by economic consultants Davy Kelleher and McCarthy (DKM), who concluded in the Review of Transport Infrastructure Investment Needs in February of this year that the next programme of investment in the Republic "should not contain any measure of grant aid for State or regional airports". DKM found that the State airports were self-financing and were possible candidates for privatisation. The regional airports were already receiving subventions and the report refers to "hinterland overlaps", maintaining that extensions to the runway at Galway would possibly attract traffic from Knock or Shannon and not generate additional traffic.
It has also been argued elsewhere, that inward investment is dependent not merely on airports but a whole raft of infrastructure, such as roads, high-quality broadband communications, and industrial grade power supply. For example, Hewlett Packard could not set up anywhere in the Republic's north-west, even if an airport was built for it alone, as the electricity service and the telecommunications service is simply not good enough.
However, if the three regions on the island (the Southern and Eastern Region; the Border Midlands and Western Region and Northern Ireland) are to engage in spatial development, given the importance of airports in the spatial location of economic activity, regional airports become more important.
In Northern Ireland Derry, Belfast City and to a lesser extent Enniskillen airports, which are owned and financed by local councils, are well advanced in regional terms. Belfast International Airport, which is privately owned, is currently reinvesting more than £110m.
For a relatively small area, all of which is said to be within 90 minutes drive time of an airport, Northern Ireland is well served in spatial terms.
The Fitzpatrick Report on the Border Midlands and Western Development Strategy 2000 2006 notes that both the Border Midlands and Western Region and the Southern and Eastern Regions have identified regional airport development as essential in terms of key growth promoters. The Midlands Regional Authority noted that another airport could be developed close to the N4 corridor.
With the Republic's National Development Plan (NDP) and Northern Ireland's Development Plan for the years 2000 to 2006 containing a common chapter, and about to be submitted to the EU Commission for approval, it is likely that some funding rationalisation will occur between Derry/ Donegal/Sligo/Enniskillen.
The two Belfast airports would appear to have a secure future, while elsewhere in the south Aer Rianta's airports at Dublin, Cork and Shannon are flourishing. Kerry, too, looks secure, as does Knock. Which leaves Waterford - where there are otherwise good infrastructural communications, and Galway - which is enjoying growth of twice the Republic's rate - as prime candidates for investment. Given that the development plan for Waterford is under £10 million and Galway's possibly less, Mr McCreevy could find that establishing good regional air services is well within his budget.
