The Irish Minister of State with responsibility for Gaeltacht Affairs has awarded Aer Arann Islands (Connemara) a Public Services Obligation (PSO) contract to serve the Aran Islands of Inishmaan, Inisheer, and Inishmore. The contract begins on January 1, 2017 and runs until December 31, 2020.
The reallocation of the contract to Aer Arann Islands, which has operated the service for over forty years, comes after government cancelled a previous allocation to Executive Helicopters (EXH, Galway).
In September 2015, islanders objected to Executive Helicopters' proposed service arguing the use of a helicopter would prove impractical as would the use of Galway as a main base, located some 50km away from Connemara, from where Aer Arann Islands currently serves the islands.
