Splash landing plans for East Clare

Three Clare men and a Cork man are aiming to lead the way with an innovative aviation initiative, which could see charter seaplanes operating out of Mountshannon in East Clare by 2010 and could generate up to 60 jobs nationally. Harbour Air Ltd has lodged the first of a series of planning applications to develop a seaplane tourism business.

An application relating to the installation of floating pontoons, access gangway, slipway, passenger shelter, maintenance hardstanding, temporary cover and associated infrastructure at Dooros, Mountshannon, has been lodged by the company.
Making up the four shareholders in the company is Emelyn Heaps from Tulla and of the East Clare Golf Holiday Village; Ronan Connolly a solicitor from Ennis; Stewart Curtis, an engineer from O’Callaghan’s Mills and Adam Cronin, an engineer from Cobh.
According to the company it is envisaged that Mountshannon holiday village will form the base of operations for the business. If successful, the pontoons would provide for the take-off and landing of sea planes in Lough Derg, which would serve Dublin, the Aran Islands, Athlone, Limerick City, Foynes, Cork and Galway.
From this location, it is estimated that passengers could be in Dublin Harbour in 45 minutes and could fly to the Aran Islands in under 20 minutes, slashing journey times considerably. The proposal would facilitate daily return journeys to popular tourist destinations catering for between nine and 19 people per trip, ultimately boosting tourism to the Lough Derg region.
Speaking to The Clare Champion, Ronan Connolly said, “Ireland is one of the most suitable countries for sea planes, being blessed with natural water ways and lakes. As well we as that the majority of our proposed locations enjoy calm conditions”.
“It is our aim that Mountshannon will be largely a maintenance base and it is hoped that the head office will be located at the holiday village. At full capacity, if rolled out across the country, it could mean up to 50 to 60 people being employed,” he added.
He explains that the four looked into seaplane businesses in Vancouver, Canada, Scotland and Malta, where successful operations are run and they acknowledge that it is a proven concept.
“The most successful sea plane operator is in Canada, which has operated from Vancouver to Vancouver Island for the last 40 years with about 100 flights a day. As Vancouver is at the same latitude as Ireland the conditions are very similar. So the concept is well proven,” he continued.
Mr Connolly outlined that the simple difference between a standard charter plane and a seaplane is the seaplane’s “beautiful take off and landing”. “There are no bumps, no jolts, no waiting at airports, no waiting for boarding, there will be a simple security scanner and on you go. However, there won’t be much baggage allowed, but we would be mainly catering for day trippers,” he said.
“The main benefit of this is a serious focus on tourists and it will bring people to the area very easily, creating a huge tourism boost for the region. We now hope to get the support from various bodies such as Shannon Development and Fáilte Ireland. The operation is expensive. We’re not big businessmen, so we’ll be looking for support and we hope that these bodies will get behind us,” Mr Connolly added.
He acknowledges that the whole initiative came into being from simply wanting to do something to boost tourism. The four see the recession as the right time to put this in place, when tourism is needed. They also see it as an opportunity to get it off the ground, with prices coming down across the board.
In conclusion, Mr Connolly said, “We don’t think we’ll make a fortune out of it but we have identified a niche market, we know our locations are all good and we know the tourists want to come to these locations”.