I was hoping not to get that answer, The SSK, but I fear it is true. We may have a long wait and I'm less optimistic than ever that we'll have O/S in place by year end, as the EU Commission seemed to suggest.
Now it's over to Plan B for Ireland ...
Averytdeaconharry, thanks for your kind comment. I've always been interested in regulatory issues, having been involved in lobbying against the Shannon stopover, our excuse for a transatlantic aviation policy, since my college days back in the early 1990s; although I'm now living in Jersey, I continued to be very interested in it (and indeed, regulatory issues generally) and have been following the issue very closely over the past 2-3 years particularly, since the prospect of an EU-negotiated deal became known.
We're in a very difficult position in Ireland because although a "status quo"/"all engines stop" position wouldn't affect most countries that much - since most already have O/S anyway (despite the ECJ decision in 2003). However, we're still stuck with this
SNN stopover rule, which requires one flight from SNN and one from DUB; US carriers and EI and now - belatedly - the Irish govt want it to change, but the Commission won't allow it. I believe there are grounds for a challenge on Competition Grounds, but whatever happens, we're not going to write off another year to this kind of nonsense, especially as one of the consequences of this nonsense is that EI could add three more US cities. It's incredible that we're in this position in 2007.