I seem to recall, from the ORK thread, that an aircraft flying any route from Ireland to the US, needed to be Irish. I note what is said about permission from the intermediate state (and also, the deafening silence, so far, from Kildare Street), but what about the US authorities? Will they permit Ireland-US operations by a UK carrier? Is this exemption about aircraft on an intermediate stop actually written into the current Irish-US bilateral?
Wasn't there a proposal some time ago that Y2 would put an aircraft on the Irish register. I really hope this can go through, but I have a niggling suspicion that there may be trouble ahead.
That said, it could be a good ploy by the NOC authorities; will the govt - in an election year - obstruct this? They may have to say no initially, but I'm sure that there will be an "added incentive" to sort out any difficulties in the interim.