Flying high is no longer just for elite race-goers

IT’S the sort of behaviour that once landed a bank manager in Dublin Castle, but if a tribunal ever asks me, I can’t remember why or how I ended up in a Celtic Helicopter flying to the Galway Races.

Seated to the left of the pilot Alastair on the Claddagh 1-2, we took off from Glenlo Abbey — the five-star hotel on the road to Connemara — becoming one of the thousands flying to the Ballybrit race course this week.

It’s been famously said that helicopters can’t fly — they’re just so ugly that the ground repels them.

And it was easy to see from the cockpit why the glistening Corrib and the green fields that surrounded the waterway were in no mood for disturbance from a hovering aircraft on such a sunny day.

It was quite the opposite at the race grounds where we arrived less than five minutes later.

The complex attracted helicopters like magnets — one landing on average every 40 seconds on the four helipads in the centre of the race track.

One onlooker described it as a “mini-Vietnam”.

Celtic Helicopters was the first company to start ferrying people by air to the Galway Races 22 years ago. Back then, they had only a handful of elite clients. Now, the firm is operating six helicopters which will go back and forth conveying people to the races all day. It costs €380 for a return trip and it is also operating a week-long service for wealthy clients.

“The people who would have been our clients 10 years ago now own their own helicopters. Their businesses would have grown, so they decided to acquire their own helicopters. Now it is quite accessible,” said Jeanne Schworer, operations manager with Celtic Helicopters.

“We have people who save up for months before the races just to get this as a treat — we have one family who got it for their granny as a present and we have some celebrities and business people too. Really, we have all sorts.”

In 1991, there were 120 helicopter movements to and from the Galway races. This week, there will be more than 2,000 — up from 1,700 last year — making it the highest ever.

Just one person, legendary gambler JP McManus, has his own landing and parking site at the race track — the rest are only allowed to land for a few seconds before taking off again.