Waterford Airport sits at Killowen, four nautical miles south-east of Waterford City, with its single runway oriented roughly east-west. It opened in 1981 to give the south-east of Ireland its own commercial airfield. The R708 connecting road - upgraded in 2008 - now puts the airport ten minutes from Waterford city centre at off-peak times. For two decades EIWF supported a rotating cast of small carriers: Aer Arann under the Aer Lingus Regional brand, then Belgian-operated VLM, then a brief and ill-fated attempt by Aer Southeast that never quite got off the ground because of licensing issues. Routes came and went: Birmingham, Manchester, London Luton, London Southend, Bordeaux, Faro, Málaga, Amsterdam. The last scheduled flight left in June 2016. Since then EIWF has served the Waterford Aero Club, the AFTA pilot training school, and ad-hoc business aviation.

Most of the story of Waterford Airport in the 21st century is the story of trying to lengthen its runway. At 1,433 metres, the strip is too short for most modern jets - it can take ATR turboprops comfortably and Boeing 737s only with significant restrictions. A series of plans rose and fell through the 2010s: a 150-metre extension funded by the state in 2013, a more ambitious 850-metre extension announced in 2019 with backing from Glanbia, Coolmore Stud and Dawn Meats. In August 2022 the billionaire Comer brothers agreed to take a majority stake. In October 2025, Bolster Group announced a comprehensive €30 million funding package finally large enough to deliver the full project - a runway extended to 2,287 metres, longer than Cork. Waterford City and County Council approved the deal that month, though with public concerns about the anonymity of the US investor and the council's decision to sell €2.3 million of public land for €50,000. Construction is scheduled to start in 2026 and flights are targeted for summer 2027.

On 1 July 1999, EIWF hosted the first day of 24-hour helicopter search and rescue coverage from the south-east. A Eurocopter Dauphin from the Irish Air Corps, Rescue 111, had flown down from Casement Aerodrome in Dublin that morning with seven crew aboard. Just before one in the morning on 2 July, returning from a successful medical evacuation off a fishing vessel, Rescue 111 hit the high sand dunes behind Tramore beach in heavy fog while trying to find the runway. All four flying crew were killed: Captain David O'Flaherty, Captain Michael Baker, Sergeant Patrick Mooney, and Corporal Niall Byrne. The Air Accident Investigation Unit report, published in June 2000, was unsparing: no air traffic controller on duty, inadequate weather reports, faulty approach lighting, a crew already 15 hours into a long flying day, training inadequate for the conditions. Civilian SAR was eventually transferred from the Air Corps to a contractor under the Irish Coast Guard. A memorial sits above the dunes.

Walk into the terminal on a working day and you will find a coffee bar, the AFTA pilot trainees in white shirts comparing notes about touch-and-goes, and perhaps a single business jet on the apron. Aero Club Cessnas come and go from the western end of the runway. The Air Corps no longer maintains a permanent detachment, but military helicopters drop in regularly for fuel. The ILS and the new approach lighting from the post-1999 reforms are still in service. R708 leads out toward Tramore and the coast; R710 ring road connects to the M9 motorway and the rest of the network. Eight kilometres west, in Carrick-on-Suir, the Sean Kelly Sports Centre carries the name of the cyclist who rode out from Curraghduff on these same back roads.

The arguments about whether a regional airport in Ireland's south-east can survive in the long term are not new ones. In July 2025, Ryanair's chief executive Michael O'Leary said publicly that Waterford 'will never be a commercial proposition,' pointing out that Dublin and Cork airports both sit within a two-hour drive. The counter-argument runs that the south-east, with a population of nearly half a million people, deserves its own connection - and that the longer runway, when it arrives, will give the airport a chance it has never had before. The question will probably be settled by what airlines actually do once the runway opens. In the meantime EIWF continues its quieter work: training the next generation of Irish commercial pilots, hosting aero club fly-ins on summer weekends, and keeping, in plain sight from its threshold, a memorial that explains why air traffic control here is now a 24-hour job.