Voices
In February 2025, I was having a coffee with Declan Ryan and Eamonn Brennan. Declan is a founder of the aviation investment platform Irelandia, and Eamonn is the former director general of Eurocontrol and CEO of the Irish Aviation Authority. Both have extensive knowledge of the Irish and global commercial aviation industry.
We were noodling about how the Irish aviation ecosystem had evolved into such a powerful global set of businesses and industry leaders. Ryan, as always, was interested in the future shape of air travel and Ireland’s role in it.
That triggered a chat about how Irelandia could help stimulate policy initiatives that would open doors for investment and employment in aviation, which will help grow and expand the Irish economy.
“A Pathfinder for Irish Aviation” is the result of that conversation. On the spot, Declan asked Eamonn and me to do a few things. First, write a study in short order that was focused on producing five, and only five, actionable policy ideas that can occur quickly and trigger a new wave of investment behind Irish aviation.
Second, interview a wide range of industry leaders inside and outside Ireland to elicit, in confidence, their best ideas about how to turbo-charge Irish aviation.
Third, do all that by May on a shoestring budget. Finally, as all of us tend to develop a rash at the thought of “consultancy reports”, make it concise, readable and actionable.
He immediately reached out to over 30 CEOs and respected thought leaders across the aviation sector and requested that they each give an hour to Eamonn and me in preparing the report. All agreed, itself a reflection of Irelandia’s reputation in the global industry.
Insights and Ireland
The resulting set of interviews was a masterclass in commercial aviation, giving us unique insights into the world of airports, airlines, aircraft leasing, maintenance and repair, aircraft manufacturing, air traffic control, unmanned aerial vehicles, drones and supply chains.
Among the 33 industry leaders who gave their valuable time was IATA director general Willie Walsh; Dublin Airport Authority CEO Kenny Jacobs; SVP international affairs with Airlines For America Keith Glatz; head of legal and ESG at Wizzair Yvonne Moynihan; British Airways chief exec Sean Doyle; and the CEOs of Ryanair, Aer Lingus, Emerald Airlines, Avolon, SMBC Aviation, Vertical Aerospace and Atlantic Aviation.
In six weeks, we conducted a series of conversations with these leaders while in parallel writing a holistic overview of the aviation industry on the island of Ireland. Our objective was to design a physical and digital report that a politician, civil servant, entrepreneur, board director or student could consume quickly and absorb the ideas to take action.
Not taking action has become a problem across the Irish civil service and political system in recent years. Whether that’s a function of the pandemic or an aversion to taking risks is another debate, but it is a malaise that affects a wide range of sectors, including infrastructure, construction and in this specific situation, aviation.
Ireland Inc needs policy leadership and decisions to stimulate key parts of its economy, especially at a time when FDI is likely to be paused amid geopolitical turbulence. This is where key indigenous sectors can play a positive strategic role, and aviation is a critical part of that.
Ask yourself why Ireland has had a thriving economy and close to full employment in the last five years. After all, for most of the Republic’s one hundred-year independence, it was plagued by high levels of unemployment and the stain of structural emigration.
We shovelled tens of thousands of our best and brightest out of the country at a young age every year, and deluded ourselves that it was no harm for them to experience life abroad.
The reason why that has stopped is due to the success of indigenous industry in all its forms, enormous investment by multinationals and the development of tourism. Each has boomed in the last decade, and all of them have a unique umbilical dependence on aviation and air travel.
Ireland – no prize for guessing this – is a physical island. More importantly, it is defined in economic academia as a “small, open economy”. In English, that means we are utterly dependent on the global economy of markets and consumers.
To connect to those markets, you need large-scale, highly efficient and fluid air connections and services. Multiple, everyday flights to locations around the world, which can fuel the Irish economy, are central to that system.
Alongside that umbilical relationship between Irish society (including the 80 million diaspora) and air travel services, there is a unique position that the Irish aviation ecosystem has achieved in its global industry. Ireland is home to the world’s largest aircraft leasing companies, which account for about 50 per cent of aircraft in the global fleet and deploy billions of dollars each year expanding their assets.
Outside of China, Irish companies are the largest global customers of Boeing. The largest airline in Europe – Ryanair – is headquartered in Ireland. Aer Lingus is a core part of Europe’s largest Flag Carrier group, IAG. The wings of the all-new Airbus A220 short-haul aircraft are manufactured in Belfast, and up to 40 per cent of seats in the world’s aircraft fleet are designed or manufactured in Northern Ireland.
Irish companies maintain and repair many large aircraft, including the RAF’s heavy lift Airbus A400m fleet. Irish air traffic controllers manage large swathes of the eastern Atlantic air corridors, connecting North America with Europe. The Irish are heavily over-indexed on the global stage of commercial aviation.
In writing “Pathfinder”, we sought to connect the unique strengths of the Irish aviation sector with the potential opportunities of the all-island Irish economy. That connection crystallises in five key policy recommendations detailed in the report, which is attached to this article.
Those policy recommendations centre on
- Shaping an all-island aviation strategy that combines the manufacturing and engineering strength of the north with the airline and leasing prowess in the south;
- Expanding maintenance and repair infrastructure on the island, including the building of a world-class engine overhaul facility;
- Quadrupling commercial pilot training in Ireland with a focus on underutilised airports;
- Enhancing the aircraft leasing sector through treaty expansion, incentives for pollution cutting, new aircraft and developing an all-new digital certified asset transfer system for aircraft; and
- Removing artificial limits on air passenger numbers and giving An Bord Pleanála and the Irish Aviation Authority regulatory oversight on aircraft noise and strategic airport planning
We would like as many people as possible to consider and debate these policy ideas to have them enacted at speed. That includes local politicians and community leaders in places like Waterford, Shannon or Derry that can see the potential in world-class pilot training or a major engine overhaul facility being located in their communities.
It includes civil servants and ministers who see the value of strengthening the aircraft leasing sector to improve its competitiveness. It should also interest those who believe in the power of apprenticeships to scale up the maintenance and repair facilities in airports around Ireland.
Policymakers who see the opportunity of all-island co-operation will be interested in our proposal to combine the manufacturing and engineering skills in Northern Ireland with the financing, leasing and airline strengths in the south.
All those embarrassed by the imposition of an artificial cap on the number of passengers that can travel to and from Ireland by air, and the damage that does to our international standing, should also focus on our solutions for that. Most of all, anyone who cares about creating new employment for future generations of Irish people who want to work and live on our island should read this report.
Ireland is a great country that is home to a unique commercial aviation ecosystem comprised of businesses and leaders who are full of ambition. The Government and civil service have an opportunity to unlock a wave of investment in this key sector that will empower critical parts of the economy to grow and create much-needed employment for the next generation of Irish kids, and the ones after that.
Pathfinder squadrons in World War II shepherded crews to reach their targets – “A Pathfinder for Irish Aviation” gives political and civil service cohorts a flight path to create growth and employment through a sector where Ireland is a global leader. Now they must fly it.
