Originally Posted by
dublinaviator
So I think its fair to say there is a market for Aer Arann because they serve a mainly niche market, which would otherwise be unserved by the other 2 main airlines.
Yes, but...
Leaving aside the Aer Lingus Regional routes the core of the RE network is made up of the PSO services, which is a niche on the verge of extinction. And while technically the share of their revenue made up of PSOs is relatively small, the other non-PSO routes benefit from economies of scale from the PSO operation. Assuming the PSOs go away next year (or earlier), I find it hard to see which of their non-EI-Regional routes could still be sustainable apart from WAT-LTN and maybe GWY-LTN and/or DUB-IOM.