Much more to success story of airline than `milking the system'

Aer Arann Express is determined to become the new regional carrier, as it awaits a Government decision on the next round of EU…

Aer Arann Express is determined to become the new regional carrier, as it awaits a Government decision on the next round of EU-subsidised domestic routes.

The airline's managing director, Padraig O Ceidigh, doesn't even like to describe himself as "quietly confident", just days before the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, confirms the new round of Public Service Obligation (PSO) contracts.

However, the Connemara-born former teacher, qualified accountant, lawyer, printing company, newspaper and airline owner and - most recently - TG4 chat-show host, does tend to land on his feet.

It is no accident - he puts in the groundwork, according to those who know him and who take issue with a recent profile which described him as someone who knew how to "milk the system" on Gaeltacht grants.

READ MORE

Certainly, Aer Arann Express has benefited from its location and Udaras na Gaeltachta support. The Gaeltacht authority paid £165,000 last year in grants and maintenance for the Inis Mor airport, including a bus service to Galway, a freight depot and a discount service off season for the people of the islands.

Under a new arrangement, whereby the Department of Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands is taking over subsidies for island travel, a sum of £330,000 was agreed from April of this year to September 2001, paid through the Udaras.

However, the airline business is fragile, even at the best of times. It is under severe pressure now due to rising fuel costs. Last month's liquidation of TransAer, the Dublin airline, was as much a shock to O Ceidigh as to anyone else in the business. "You only need one problem, like replacement of an engine, to run up the debts. That's the sort of operation it is."

O Ceidigh and Galway anaesthetist Eugene O'Kelly took over Aer Arann and the airport at Inverin in 1994 from the Manchester-based Roscommon businessman, Tom Kilroe. Initially, the pair bought a two-thirds share, with the balance held by Udaras na Gaeltachta, but they are now sole owners. Set up over 30 years ago to serve the Aran islands, the airline now has links to the Isle of Man and Sheffield and has tendered for all of the domestic Irish air services under the PSO contracts.

It runs services on four of the six routes, linking Dublin to Donegal, to Sligo, to Cork and to Galway and has purchased a new aircraft to fulfil the PSO requirements. Last year, it took over the Dublin-Sligo route from Aer Lingus and it introduced three new routes earlier this year - Dublin-Cork, Dublin-Galway and Dublin-Derry. The Derry decision was taken after business interests appealed to O Ceidigh to fill the Aer Lingus breach. ail TD for Donegal North-East, Ms Cecilia Keaveney, over the need for a link to the Inishowen peninsula.

The airline hasn't forgotten its original remit, and recently announced an extra daily service to the islands from Inverin. Passenger numbers have jumped from 12,000 to 70,000 annually, and use of the Aer Lingus network in Dublin allows it to offer a comprehensive ticketing and baggage service, linking the regional airports with Britain and Europe. Aer Arann's employee numbers have doubled, with 50 working at the Dublin Airport base, and 25 to 30 in Co Galway.

O Ceidigh travels up and down daily by air to the capital - Aer Arann's participation in this route now means the Galway-Dublin commuter has five flights to choose from daily. He likes to think that his employees work "with" rather than "for" him. It is an extension of his approach to his secondary school pupils, when he taught maths and commerce at his alma mater Colaiste Iognaid in Galway. "I didn't teach. I facilitated learning," he says.

He has a passion for education, and talks at length about it. Ultimately frustrated with a system that he couldn't change, he took a career break with the support of his wife, Caitlin. It wasn't an easy decision, with four children to rear, but he had already begun to study law at night.

He worked with a Galway legal practice, set up on his own, and began pursuing his many business interests, including the printing company, Clodoiri Lurgan Teo, which is also supported by Udaras na Gaeltachta. In 1996, he applied for and won the contract for the Irish language newspaper, Foinse.

He took up an offer from TG4 to host a live Saturday-night television show through Irish, entitled Ardan.

With such a profile, has he further ambitions? O Ceidigh denies vehemently that he has political affiliations.

The one politician he wouldn't mind hearing from is the Minister for Education, Dr Woods. "I would love to be part of a working group on education which would be charged with a fundamental reform of the system," he says.