Exciting times for Kilkenny

[Papa8]

I have been informed that there will be hard runway in place within 24 months at Kilkenny plus at least 2 million euro of investment. The airport has been leased to an anonymous third party and work is due to start in the new year or maybe later.

[alphaLaura]

I knew all those carefully placed tarmac slabs would, one day, grow into a beautiful tarmac runway!

[Nanolight]

...and here's me thinking they were buying the tarmac on the installment plan.

Ha! No but seriously that's great news. It would be nice to see another Kilrush-esque development for GA.

[Papa8]

Funnily enough I asked at the end of September if it was ever thought that a hard runway might be put down and the reply I got was 'some rich benefactor would have to step in' as it wouldn't be easy to fund it through the club.

I wonder if the moniker of 'Kilkenny Airport' might yet gain some credence? I presume the runway could be made to the same length as the current grass runway and if maintenance, fuel and new hangarage were put in could the airport actually support business jets as foreseen through improvements to Weston? In fact it would be a tad longer than Weston? After all Kilkenny already has a number of hotels that hold conferences as well as a good name for tourism, events and the airport is very close to the city although the road to the field would want upgrading not to mention the airport would need many improvements before reaching the level Weston is at. I would see the planned 2 million bringing the airport up to a similar level of development as say Abbeyshrule.

Keep an eye on planning is all I can say!!!

[historical-avi-irl.i8.com]

I presume the runway could be made to the same length as the current grass runway

Well, it would be some shock if a load of houses were purchased and "Shannon Part Two" started to develop!

[StephenM]

Would the improvements allow for Commercial flights?

[Lambada Crazy]

i wouldnt imagine so, the plans allow for a "hard, all weather runway" which could mean gravel, concrete etc"

[Flyer1]

Why set up commercial flights from Kilkenny, Waterford would only be 20mins down the road if the county councils got their fingers out and did a job on the roads.

[GoGoGadgetGoAround]

If

[Dogbiscuit]

I would take "hard all weather" runway in Ireland to mean tarmac or concrete. Anything else would be too expensive to maintain.

If you had such a runway you could then have air taxi type commercial operations Navajos, King airs etc etc (provided of course the fire cat.was up to it).

Very handy for the rich and famous when visiting Mt.Jul.

[Lambada Crazy]

Correct me if im wrong but as far as i know there are plenty of King Air type traffic that already use kilkenny, mayb not in the winter, they could come with floats

[Flyer1]

Yeah, there was a King Air 90 in there before for sure... Mind you, he was fairly stuck to the ground for a lot of the runway on takeoff