Lads, even if EI did have 2 hour pit-stops at ORK, it would not be much good to them, realistically thats only 35-40mins flying time, maybe a quick hop to SNN could be squeezed in, but that would be about it.
I usually do up an execl sheet of the timetable, so I'll make my own judgments. With 4 aircraft, only 2/3 short routes and long-ish flights to Europe, there is only so much EI can do...
AFAIK there are a few problems with the LGW rote from ORK. 1st being the aircraft would have to be ORK based, to get a decent schedule (i.e. morning and evening flights) a fifth aircraft would need to be send down to us, the other problem is FR, they might just ramp up flights to LGW, at crazy low fares. FR would most likely base a second aircraft in ORK, no doubt that aircraft would fly elsewhere, do EI really need to invite than kind of competition and cash drain into ORK at the present time?
Good news on the EMA route. Nice to see bmibaby making a go at it again. Any news on frequencies? Over the years they have tried LGW, EMA, BHX, MAN, CWL, they seem pretty committed to ORK. Hopefully they will stick with EMA and MAN in the long term.
Brian.