A failed bidder for Galway Airport is demanding full disclosure from its local authority owners on why they rejected six potential buyers.
Innova Investment Holdings, partnered with Aer Arann, says it contacted Galway County Council in March last year to propose using the airline’s aviation licence to facilitate a regional HEMS (helicopter emergency medical service ) relay base in Galway Airport’s unused hangars for Sligo-based choppers, but received no formal response.
Earlier this month, Galway’s city and county councils rejected six submissions submitted in April 2025 to buy or lease the 118.2 acre aviation facility they co-own in Carnmore.
At least two of these submissions aimed to retain the Galway Airport site as an aviation facility, for training, aeromedical services, aeronautical manufacturing or other aviation-related research. The councils bought Carnmore in 2013 for €1.1m.
Innova Investment Holdings is understood to have bid €11.5 million to buy the former airport, located five miles east of the city centre. It closed to passenger traffic in 2011 when Aer Arann ceased commercial operations there.
Fronted by Galway city-based Seamus McAuley, Innova’s pitch was to invest €45 million into Galway Airport - creating 865 direct jobs and generating up to €450 million in regional economic activity over five years.
The Innova group has investments in financial and medical technologies, and claims immediate access to up to €250 million for new aviation tech investment.
Its Project BioSky for Galway – combining an aviation and health tech R&D hub in Carnmore – would be a €100m total investment across a number of partnered companies, including Aer Arann, Honda, and Britten-Norman, which manufactures short take-off and landing (STOL ) aircraft, such as Aer Arann’s Islander fleet.
An air taxi to Dublin, Cork and Belfast, with possible future connections to Shannon and Knock, was also part of Innova’s proposal.
McAuley says he lodged Freedom of Information and environmental information access (AIE ) requests last week to Galway County Council and Galway City Council to demand “full disclosure of the scoring matrices and evaluation records” used by a panel set up to evaluate bids, including his “fully costed” 27-page submission.
This expert panel comprised Joe McGrath, former Chief Executive of Tipperary County Council, Joe Greaney of KMS auctioneers, and PJ Power of PPG surveyors. They concluded none of the six proposals they assessed met criteria specified “at the standard required to progress the future development of a site of this scale and strategic significance,” according to a statement.
McAuley says he and his private equity backers are looking for transparency.
“We did not engage with members of either councils. We were told there was a process with a review panel we must stick to, but we are going to reach out to [all local politicians] now to inform them of our ideas which could attract 2,500 jobs over five years,” he said.
McAuley said publishing the review criteria would assist his investment vehicle, and others, to submit more targeted proposals when the councils set up a new expert body to determine the future of Galway Airport.
“If there are aspects of other bids [the councils] approve of, then we are open to working with other bidders,” he said. “This 1,300m runway is a vital, regional piece of infrastructure. Surely the councils can communicate with interested parties to discuss how we can retain it as such – including space for emergency medical services?
“We were surprised there was no pre-engagement meetings with council officials before the formal Expression of Interest process, and we just want to know now who will be the unelected officials making determination on future proposals,” says McAuley.
The two local councils issued a joint statement earlier this month planning a new “entity” with private sector input to determine Galway Airport’s future in line with the current county development plan.
