Mark
Ha, ha, trust me to pick the wrong Irish regional airport.
I am sure you are right about Waterford but the general point I was making was that Aer Arann did start a lot of new routes around the time they cut back on BRS and SOU, and obviously they were not going to give up on their PSO routes.
When the airline actually started the ORK to BRS and SOU routes in summer 2002 they initially operated a combined flight to both airports calling at BRS both en route to SOU and on the way back to ORK. Equipment was a ATR 72 and it was six days a week (not Sats).
The next year they decided to operate separate flights to both airports, again six days a week, to BRS usually with a 72 and (I believe) to SOU with a 42.
Then this summer they reduced the rotations as described in my earlier post.
Both before and after the reduction in schedules both SOU and BRS routes to ORK averaged loads of 40 to 45 pax most months (CAA stats), which would give an average load of 80-90% on the ATR 42, which the airline now seems to use on the BRS route, and I presume the SOU one.
Even with the current three days a week service from BRS to ORK the average loads for September and October this year were 45 and 42 respectively - worked out from CAA stats on the number of pax carried in those months.
It may be that the airline gets better yields elsewhere but I am surprised that no-one else seems interested in a route that appears ripe for plucking.