Departure
83%
vs 95% ▼ 12
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Waterford Airport (EIWF) lies at Killowen, some four nautical miles southeast of Waterford city in southeastern Ireland, and is Ireland's principal general aviation field for the southeast. Once a scheduled commercial airport with links to the UK and mainland Europe, it now supports flight training, search and rescue, aerial survey and business aviation, with a single hard-surfaced runway equipped with an ILS.
Waterford Airport is a general aviation aerodrome at Killowen, close to Waterford city in southeastern Ireland, operated by Waterford Airport Ltd. It once hosted scheduled commercial services, including an early Ryanair international route to London Gatwick, but has been without scheduled airline traffic since 2016. For a visiting sim pilot it offers a single instrument-equipped runway, a straightforward approach environment, and a mix of training, business and public-service flying that gives the field an active, workmanlike character.
The airport is located in Killowen, about 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) southeast of Waterford city, in the southeast of Ireland.
Waterford has a single physical runway, 03/21, 4402 ft long on the 03 threshold and 4219 ft on the 21 threshold, with a hard surface and runway lighting. An ILS is provided for approaches to runway 21.
Waterford's aeronautical frequencies are ATIS on 121.15 MHz, Ground on 121.6 MHz, and a combined Information/Tower frequency on 129.85 MHz. An ILS serves runway 21 for instrument approaches.
Waterford Airport was developed by Waterford Corporation with support from the Irish government and private investors in 1979-1980, at a cost of £1.76 million, and opened in 1981 with a 1,200 by 29 metre runway suited to single and twin-engine light aircraft, served initially by a portable cabin as its terminal. A permanent terminal building opened in 1992, alongside a lengthened runway of 1,433 by 30 metres. Avair introduced the first scheduled passenger service in 1982, linking Waterford with Cork and Dublin, and in 1985 Ryanair launched its first ever international scheduled service from Waterford to London Gatwick. The airport marked 21 years of scheduled operations in 2006, and in 2007 a major upgrade programme was announced, intended to extend the runway to 7,300 feet and build a new terminal capable of handling a million passengers a year, with ambitions to introduce services to cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Prague and Rome and to offer the southeast a genuine alternative to Dublin and Cork airports. These plans, targeted for completion by 2009, were not realised in full. Passenger numbers fell sharply in 2009 following route suspensions to Bordeaux, Faro, Malaga and Amsterdam, and in 2010 the government declined to fund the planned runway extension on financial grounds. Aer Arann withdrew its remaining routes in 2012-2013, and a smaller, partly funded runway extension of 150 metres was approved in 2013. The Irish Army held an exercise at the airport in April 2013, and Irish Coast Guard helicopters have operated from the field, including one photographed there in September 2015. VLM Airlines took over Birmingham and London Luton services in 2015 but withdrew from Waterford entirely by June 2016, ending scheduled commercial traffic at the airport. A subsequent venture, Aer Southeast, announced plans in 2017 to resume services to London Luton, Manchester and Birmingham using Saab 340 aircraft, but these never began and the airline ceased operations in 2018. In June 2019 a further plan was unveiled to extend the runway by 850 metres and refurbish the airport, backed by government and local business funding, though its progress is not detailed in available records beyond that announcement.
Since losing its last scheduled airline in 2016, Waterford Airport has continued to operate as a general aviation field, supporting pilot training, search and rescue flying, aerial survey work and business aviation. Reports referenced in later coverage suggest that runway extension works were under way by the mid-2020s with a view to a possible return of commercial services by 2027, though this remained a stated intention rather than a confirmed operational change.
