Up up and away for seaplane airport

All routes lead to Mountshannon from this week as it is the site of Ireland’s newest fully licensed airport, a development with multimillion euro potential for the region. 
The Mountshannon base will be the primary location of operations for Harbour Flights Ireland seaplane operation, which is also Europe’s first European Aviation Safety Agency-approved float plane training facility.
The Irish Aviation Authority presented the four-team partnership that makes up Harbour Flights Ireland with their licence at an event held at their base in Mountshannon on Tuesday. It is now expected that in three years’ time Harbour Flights will employ up to 60 people nationally.
Ronan Connolly, a director with the company, has indicated that how much the seaplane operations is worth to the region depends on the level of support it gets locally.
“It is speculative to come up with a figure but multi-million would not be an exaggeration,” he said.
It took four years to get the idea off the ground, having to meet regulations that in some instances hadn’t even been considered up to that point, as well as overcoming local opposition and standard fire and safety obligations.
The main base of operations in Mountshannon will be operated by airport manager and licensee Stewart Curtis from Bodyke and his wife Rose takes on the role of office manager.
The new Irish venture is made up of Tulla resident CEO Emelyn Heaps, who brings his aviation background as well as his entrepreneurial skills to the mix, while director Adam Cronin brings his expertise as a consultant marine engineer. Ennis man and solicitor Ronan Connolly has entered a new legal sphere since getting involved, with the project having to operate within the planning and aviation laws and regulations to get this up and running.
It is now understood Harbour Flights will be launching flights from Mountshannon in the near future with scenic touristic flights over Lough Derg and from Mountshannon onto the Aran Islands, taking in the Cliffs of Moher “imminent”.
“It was a hell of a journey, it will be four years next month when Ronan and I first discussed this and as of Tuesday at noon we were an airport. We are the exact same as Shannon Airport and all the rules and we have to adhere to the same regulations they have to go through at Shannon. We are certified as an aerodrome, what you have is Ireland’s first IAA licensed water-based airport, probably more significantly, the most certified float plane training base in Europe,” Mr Heaps explained.
He outlined that in the same way Shannon Airport has an airport signature of EI- SNN, the project will see Mountshannon firmly on the world map.
“EI- HFM (Harbour Flights Mountshannon) will be our signature and that will be recognised around the world, essentially a new airport has been created. We can now focus on going operational, which is imminent,” Mr Heaps said.
“This will now be on all the European pilots maps as an airport, so anyone who is planning a trip and there’s quite a lot of people in Europe that have seaplanes, Mountshannon is now the focal point for anyone who wants to come into Ireland, it’s the one place that any seaplane owner or pilot can land,” Ronan Connolly added.
Planning permission has been granted for four further Harbour Flights Ireland bases and these include Dublin, Galway, Cobh and Foynes, while plans are currently with An Bord Pleanála in relation to a further base in Limerick.
While the company needs to meet the same regulatory standards as set for its primary base in County Clare, the directors understand that this procedure will be a lot quicker, thereby facilitating inter-county flights from Mountshannon in the not-too-distant future.
“We have been working with the IAA and it has taken over a year to put all these regulations in place and we’ve worked together to bring this about. The IAA now know what’s needed, we know what’s needed and we are told now it’s a case of weeks and not months to get our other licenses. There is a template in place, they might have other regulations that are site specific but otherwise it will follow the same procedure as with Mountshannon,” Ronan Connolly stated.
“Harbour Flights Ireland has succeeded in putting Lough Derg and Mountshannon on the world map. Harbour Flights will be continuing with their mission statement to change the face of tourism in Ireland with our seaplane operation but it will also be up to the region to capitalise on our achievement,” Mr Heaps added.
While support came from a number of different people, including Ennis man Captain Kieran O’Connor, who is the owner of the national flight centre at Weston Airport, Leixslip, County Kildare and who was the aviation consultant on the project, there were many to say that the project was nothing but a pipe dream.
“When we started off we were told that we wouldn’t get this far but somehow we managed to do it. You can easily make a case for the negative but to make a case for the positive it’s a lot more challenging. The recession has made it a lot easier for us to do it. We have done everything on a shoestring compared to what it would cost in the boom. Our biggest problem really was on day one when we mentioned a seaplane base, nobody knew what planning restriction we came under, it’s never happened before. With Foynes during its time you could land a plane anywhere,” Mr Connolly explained.
Harbour Flights’ mission is to change the gravitational pull of tourists to Dublin and its directors believe that as Dublin is a mere 40 minutes away by seaplane, it can offer a taxiing service, making Dublin a day trip visit and thereby enabling tourists to remain in Clare.
The interest in the flights has been evident even ahead of the licensing, with bookings already lined up with cruise ship companies in Cobh, County Cork seeking to block book the aircraft for its Cork service.
Meanwhile, a tour bus operator based in Limerick has engaged with the company to bus people from Galway, Ennis, Limerick and Tipperary to Mountshannon to the seaplane.
“We can immediately do the touristic flights over Mountshannon, where we can spin around the lake. That will be a major one. We can also do a pleasure flight where we can take in the Cliffs of Moher. We can also operate into Aran, because we have approval to land on Inis Mor runway because it is an amphibian airplane. So we will have two flights operating in a short period of time, it could be as little as 10 days and all indications are that we will have it within that period,” Mr Heaps revealed.
The type of planes initially are expected to carry up to six or seven people and would operate at an affordable price roughly in the region of €50 to €60 for the short flights.
It is hoped that when all the bases come on stream the company would grow to a fleet of six planes operating nationally, or as many as required to meet the demand.