Whilst any new route is always welcome this is a bit of a non-event. Accept for the pre-clearance in Dublin it's the same as an AF or KL connection. EI have been been in and out of Bristol so many times over the years I've lost count. They pulled the Dublin route last time because they could not compete with Ryanair. I can't see that situation changing. They're not going to have an ATR full of onward US bound passengers everyday. If Continental couldn't attract the required number of business passengers with all that marketing and a direct flight I can't see Aer Lingus doing any better with an inferior product. If I remember rightly they tried this "Hey look everybody it's flights to America from Bristol...except that it's not" back in the late 80's. It didn't work then and I don't see a massive up take now. They've dropped out of the OneWorld alliance and are currently not a member of any. That is going to be a big draw back when business passengers make a decision who to travel with. I have to say I'd still rather travel to LHR and fly with Virgin direct especially if my final destination is not NYC. I used to use Continental, but only finished in New York on about 25% of my trips. There is no way I do Bristol - Dublin - JFK - LA if that were even possible. Fair shout to the route team for working as hard as they have ever done to try and come up with something.