flybe. (2002) (Exeter) is to terminate its Waterford services with effect from March 27, 2015. At present, Flybe offers a 3x weekly service to Birmingham, GB on-board a DHC-8-400.
The move, which will effectively leave the south-east Irish town without scheduled services, has been greeted with shock after the Waterford County Council agreed to disburse EUR0.5million (USD0.67million) to extend the airport's runway 03/21 from its current 1'433m to 1'783m.
"We are obviously very very disappointed at the discontinuation of the scheduled passenger service linking Waterford with Birmingham and onward destinations in the UK and Europe," Desmond O’Flynn, CEO, Waterford Airport, said. "It is important to underline that this comes in the context of Flybe ceasing a number of Birmingham routes and has nothing to do with the performance of the route per se, where passenger numbers are actually up 17% year to date on last year. This result makes their decision all the more incomprehensible."
