Contact Us

Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd

Lakeside Jetty
Mountshannon
Co. Clare

Tel: +353 (0) 61 926066

Fax: +353 (0) 61 926060

info@harbourflights.com

Enquiry Form



Newsletter Sign-up

  1. Sign-up to the Harbour Flights Newsletter

Subscribe
Unsubscribe

 

About Harbour Flights Ltd

The Background

Harbour Flights is an innovative company that will be the first company to introduce sea plane operations into Ireland. Emelyn Heaps, the CEO of this company has been involved at the coal face of tourism in Ireland for the past nine years and has, with the assistance of the all the management and staff of Clare Resorts Management, created a vibrant tourism product in East Clare which brings in over 10,000 visitors a year to this region.
Harbour Flights fundamental concept is to open up all of the lakes, waterways and estuary’s around the 32 counties and develop a new and vibrant tourism market.
In December 2009 the Bacon report was issued stating that 25% of the hotels should close in Ireland as this sector was over subscribed. This statement was endorsed by the Irish Hotel Federation.
Harbour Flights are appalled at this logic and we are spending our own money, time and efforts in creating new markets which will assist the hotel sector. Perhaps consultants would be better occupied if they also looked at creating new and vibrant tourist programs instead of stating closure!
Harbour Fights plans are ambitious and like all creative and new concepts, to succeed, it requires the support of all of the Government personnel who wish to assist in promoting tourism in this country, especially in a climate where there is a serious decline in tourist numbers.
Since 2008, the directors have met with Planners, Harbour Masters, Government officials, tourism bodies and like minded individuals who have all embraced this concept. We wish to acknowledge their continued support, especially to all of the Harbour Masters and planning authorities that we have met to-date.
Originally, Harbour Flights began as Aer Taxi Ltd which was formed in 2008. Its directors and share holder are Irish and the company is completely owned by these people. Harbour Flights is not in any form connected, affiliated, aligned or associated with any other sea plane operation anywhere else in the world.
In April 2008 a joint venture agreement was entered into with Harbour Air Malta Ltd. It was on their suggestion that the company name was changed from Aer Taxi to Harbour Air Ireland Ltd.
Owing to various difficulties that we encountered with Harbour Air Malta, in August of 2009 we released ourselves from our agreement and consequently, we amended the companies name to Harbour Flights Ireland Ltd.
However in our dealings with the Maltese operation we learned valuable lessons from them and guidelines that we were able to include in our operation setup and approach. We remain grateful for their input and assistance during our conceptual stages.
Since 2008 we have spent all of our time and resources in applying for all of the statutory approvals that we require to set up our route structures.

Harbour Flights is an innovative company that will be the first company to introduce  a commercial sea plane operations into Ireland.

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.

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  Airports Manager.

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.

Capt. Kieran O’ Connor  Aviation Consultant.

Owns and operates National Flight Centre Lucan, which is one of the largest flight centre in the country, and has being appointed Harbour Flights Aviation Consultant, in relation to the licensing of the waterdroms.

Mr.Vincent Grady  Financial Controller.

Vincent is the company’s financial controller and is a qualified Chartered Accountant having trained with Ernst & Young. He has start-up experience with Dell Computers when they set up a manufacturing facility in Ireland and also assisted with the Dell start-up in Malaysia. He carried out a similar role with Johnson & Johnson when they set up their Vistakon plant in Limerick. His most recent experience is as Financial Controller of the Environmental division of an Irish plc. This division has grown from a turnover of €3 million to in excess of €30million in a 7 year period and was achieved through organic growth and strategic acquisition

Mr. Anthony Miller.

Anthony joins the Harbour Flights team following a Corporate career in people and strategy development roles in which he has worked both in the UK and Ireland with blue chip companies such as Rover, BMW, BOCE and latterly as HR Director with GlaxoSmithkline in Cork, with extensive commercial experience working and delivering in high profile, challenging, changing, diverse and time pressured environments.

Ms.Rose Curtis   Office Manager.  Rose has experience within the aviation industry, and she brings a wealth of experience to the operation as Office Manager.