Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd, in conjunction with Captain Kieran O Connor, Proprietor of the
National Flight Centre at Western Airport, make aviation history in Ireland.

On Tuesday 20th September Mr. Pieter Van Velzen of the Irish Aviation Authority created history by formally granted to Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd, an Operational License for their Commercial Sea Plane base in Mountshannon on Lough Derg, County Clare.

This is the first EASA (European Aviation Safety Association) approved Commercial Sea Plane base in Europe and launches not only a new era in aviation history but a welcome development to the tourist industry.  Failte Ireland and Shannon Development should be supporting this innovated enterprise which has now taken four years to archive this historical landmark in aviation and in tourism development.

It will enable Lough Derg to become a major and vibrant tourism market leader as its prime location is perfect for sea plane owners to visit from all across Europe and a fantastic scenic introduction to beautiful Mountshannon and Lough Derg.

Harbour Flights will be soon launching their Sea Plane Scenic Tours from this location while continuing to develop the remainder of their bases across Ireland ensuring the same level of excellence and success is achieved with the IAA.

The National Flight Centre, currently the largest flight training school in Europe, will also be using the Mountshannon base to establish the only EASA approved ‘Floats’ training base in Europe. This exciting development will greatly influence tourism revenue and help create a thriving training base that will attract budding pilots from all over Europe.

Over the next three years, Harbour Flights aim to create approximately 45 new jobs.

Harbour Flights would like to applaud the Planning Authorities. Waterways Ireland.
Harbour Masters and the IAA for having the foresight in supporting Harbour Flights over the past four years.

Special thanks to Mr. Pat Daly of Shannon Development and Clare Enterprise Board  for their  support throughout.

As our logo states, Harbour Flights are looking at connectivity.

We have learned through our resorts in East Clare that the problem for the local and especially for the tourist, that all of our Government agencies are desperately trying to promote, is the difficulty that they have in visiting attractions in the West of Ireland.

Dublin receives half of our annual tourists with the West of Ireland predominately being a day destination.
Our intention is to change this perception and make Dublin the day visit while opening up all of the tourist destinations in the West and have them easily accessible by the sea plane.

Instead of attraction visits being a full day, with the majority of the visitor’s time being spent on a bus, we will shorten this to being under an hour.

We are looking at opening the West and not only has our concept attracted the support of Failte Ireland, but we have also engrossed Tourism Ireland in the concept who have stated that it is an innovated tourism idea that they will use to promote tourism aboard.

Promoters

Mr. Emelyn Heaps is Managing Director of Clare Resorts and over the past 5 years has developed the business from a 6 holiday cottage product to a current

total of 62 with a further 22 cottages at the planning stage. He has spent over half of his working life in overseas projects, primarily in the Caribbean, and has project managed over 520 Million US dollars in projects. He will be one of the driving forces behind the Harbourair (Ireland Ltd) project.

Read more about Emelyn Heaps in his new book Heaps of Trouble.

Mr. Ronan Connolly is the principal of Connolly O’Neill Solicitors, 13, Parnell Street, Ennis, Co. Clare and is a Solicitor with over 20 years experience in company and commercial law arena. He has advised on and been instrumental in the setting up of a considerable number of commercial projects and is an expert in structuring private equity investment vehicles and dealing with all legal aspects of same. He has the legal experience necessary to ensure a project such as the proposed Irish seaplane operation has full legal efficacy with all necessary permissions and consents in place.

Mr. Adam Cronin is a consulting Civil Engineer and owner of Cronin Millar Consulting Engineers. He has over 17 years experience of marine civil engineering working in both the public and private sector and is a former Dept. of Marine Senior Engineer. Cronin Millar is a consulting engineering practice specializing in marine civil engineering. The company has been involved in a wide range of projects including; marinas and waterfront developments, port and Harbour developments, coastal protection, reclamation and dredging and marine environmental projects. Cronin Millar will be providing all the professional and technical services and advice in relation to the development of the infrastructure required for the Irish seaplane operation.

Mr. Stewart Curtis is a qualified Mechanical Engineer with over 20 years hands on experience. Has run his own Engineering Company for 10 years. He diversified into the Sales market where he worked for an international storage material supply company as a Sales Manager for 5 years where he was responsible for a number of very large projects throughout Ireland and the UK. He has spent the last year two years working on this Seaplane project.