You`re spot on EI-BUD. Norwegian are cutting their winter services to Belfast, Cork and Shannon because of their precarious financial position. They cannot afford to sustain losses on routes in the winter period. A Cork-New York with a hub carrier would work well. There are 500,000 people living in Cork (city & county). Shannon has far less population yet has numerous transatlantic services.
Both Belfast and Cork have the same challenge in attracting a hub carrier for transatlantic services. They are similar sized cities though Cork is obviously more prosperous with a lot more industry, especially US firms in pharma and IT. Both cities should be able to attract a hub carrier if Shannon can.
Belfast is a larger airport carrying around 6 million passengers a year - almost thrice the throughput into Cork Airport.We have already had a Transatlantic flight with a legacy carrier for well over 10 years.
I am certain that we could have one again, over and above Cork.
Afterall you are forgetting the two weekly BFS-Orlando flights by Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook in the Summer period. Cork does not and never will have an equivalent to 747’s coming through twice a week.