Direct flight from St John's to Ireland — we won't go until we get one
It is almost a year since the abandonment of the Westjet direct flight to Dublin. This flight was very convenient and comfortable.
When news of the loss of the flight came out we all thought that there would be such an immediate uproar from governments, City of St John’s, tourism and airport authorities that this decision would be reversed, shelved or amended.
It seemed that all Irish organizations and prominent Newfoundlanders of Irish descent would be able to restore this flight.
Federal cabinet minister Seamus O’regan stated on Nov. 30, 2018 via Twitter: “The loss of the direct St. John’s–dublin flight is a wake-up call to many of us.”
I would go a little further. It does appear that a good number of folks are still asleep and have missed the entire wake-up calls. Imagine still the silence from our premier and tepid responses from the minister of Tourism. We heard from Todd Perrin and Bob Hallett — folks that are involved in the cultural sector. Also, on VOCM Open Line programs Paddy Daly has had debates on this issue.
Some say that this loss is not a big deal and that we have other priorities. Why should we care about a direct flight to Ireland? They shrug their shoulders and say why should we tell a business how to run their affairs.
They forget that we don’t know the real story of federal and provincial incentives to Halifax airport and increased fees at the St. John’s airport expansion.
We could understand if Westjet cut back to two or three flights a week or had the Halifax flight stop here.
Others say to me that the airlines and government know what is best and we are hardy Newfoundlanders and we can take another kick in the stomach.
In the recent Muskrat Inquiry hearings and we owed a debt of thanks you to the small, dedicated band, who stood up before this project was started.
Kiernan Cronin is a professor in Waterford Ireland and Kieran stepped up to the challenge and within a week he had a Facebook group “Newfoundland Ireland Direct Connection” with over two thousand followers. His leadership over the past year has galvanized support.
Pat Roberts, Joanne Dunne Glassman, Kieran Dwyer, George Power, Ralph Tapper, Niamh Redmond, Luke Power, Frank Connors and many others on line have ably assisted him.
St. John’s Mayor Danny Breen went Aberdeen and found out for himself what others had been telling him. Imagine the reaction in if airlines could now see Breen and former mayors and councilors really go to bat for us.
There are Irish people who live in this province and many Newfoundlanders that we really still haven’t heard from yet.
Others say why worry about the Dublin link because we will soon have direct London flight back this fall.
The fact is that we have expanded St. John’s Airport and at the same time have lost three major direct air links to the province — namely Dublin, New York and Gatwick.
Folks will be reluctant to give up their spring break in Florida and Mexico. Can you blame them when Alcock and Brown got to Ireland faster 100 years ago than you can got there today?
Think of Iceland, which attracts eight million visitors a year. Not much point in having adverts in Ireland saying it’s only five hours to Newfoundland, “Come and see icebergs and whales” when folks can fly from Dublin to Iceland in two hours and see all kinds of marine life.
No doubt tourism, airport and governments officials are concerned about losing international markets. However, a radical change in mind-set is needed. For example, this is what we heard first about loss of (Westjet’s) Dublin flight
“All our partners, carriers and all our stakeholders are meeting regularly to address the complex problems of air access to our province.
We look forward to further collaborations on existing transport opportunities. Significant investments have been made to tourism and to St. John’s Airport Authority and we will keep you updated as events unfold.”
I rest my case on the above bafflegab.