A campaign group is warning that the planned sale of Galway Airport could strip the west of Ireland of emergency aviation infrastructure that has no ready replacement, as Galway City and County Councils weigh six bids for the site.
The 118 acre airport at Carnmore, which has not handled scheduled commercial flights since 2011, was bought by the councils from Galway Chamber of Commerce in 2013 for €1 million, with a stated intention of keeping it in state ownership. It is now expected to fetch around €10 million on the open market.
The Galway Aviation and Innovation Advocacy Group argues that the site’s 1,300 metre runway and two large hangars serve as essential backup for medical and search and rescue flights along the west coast, and that replacing that capability elsewhere would cost in the region of €100 million. Dr Niall Owens of University Hospital Galway’s Emergency Medicine Consultant Group has pointed out that more than 40 per cent of state air ambulance missions arrive at UHG, a hospital that has only a single helicopter pad and no fixed wing runway access of its own.
The airport’s emergency role is not merely theoretical. In 1993 a damaged Irish Coast Guard Sikorsky helicopter made an emergency landing at Carnmore during a rescue operation off the west coast, an example campaigners cite when arguing for the runway’s ongoing value as a diversion option.
The sale comes only weeks after Galway City Council approved the transfer of a separate helipad site at Shantalla to the HSE, securing the long term future of a facility that handles more than 200 medical helicopter landings a year for University Hospital Galway – the busiest of any hospital in the country. Campaigners say losing Carnmore at the same time would undercut that progress, leaving the region reliant on a single site with no fixed wing capacity of its own. The councils have not indicated when a decision on the six bids will be made.
The Galway Aviation and Innovation Advocacy Group has also launched an online petition calling on the councils to retain the runway and hangars rather than sell to a private developer, proposing instead that the site be reopened for corporate travel, emergency services and technology innovation. The petition, which has gathered more than 4,000 signatures, argues that losing the runway would limit Galway’s future growth, likening it to the closure of Ireland’s rail lines decades ago. You can sign the petition here.
