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but I'm not sure the Irish government view it as a different country, afterall they operate a PSO to LDY.
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LDY serves not only NI, but also a significant part of northern Donegal, an area which is always agitating about lack of access to the rest of the Republic thanks to history. Hence my thought that both Derry and Donegal may survive as a single aircraft operation - I did witness a lunchtime Donegal rotation there a couple of years ago, and it appeared well loaded (on an ATR42). Didn't realise Derry was so poor - seems surprising, although roads are not too bad now I suppose via Belfast.
The other potential option is Manx2 operating something commercially, as they seem to be looking at niche markets albeit avoiding DUB to date. That is thread drift though, so I'll stop now
MD