With 1600 (and rising) UK pilots out of work, why would the DfT / CAA authorize these routes for IAG when it could be flown by BA using BA crews? More jobs going to foreign businesses and foreign workers when Brits are being laid off. Common travel area means that despite taking away freedom of movement, Aer Lingus could bring in their own crews and base them in the UK and yet they discriminate against Brits by insisting that they have to have the right to live and work in the EU. So in theory, if the IAG led battle against VS continues and Aer Lingus expand further in the UK, it would be more jobs for foreign nationals, brits need not apply.
This Brexit thing really wasn't very well thought out and is turning into a massive own goal.