US West Coast Route
With the disposal of an A330-300 currently being sought, there will not be much ''slack'' in the fleet for the coming summer period and with an A332 based ex IAD/MAD - it's hard to see a West Coast route returning.
At the same time, there are currently efforts underway amongst the business community in the greater SFO region to have a direct route to Ireland re-instated.
Enda Corneille previously stated (2009) that fuel hedging aside, once oil peaked above US$80 - it undermined a West Coast route. One has to assume however that this was purely looking at the scenario from a pax load factor/yield perspective with minimal cargo volumes - as robust cargo volumes, which were often present on the SFO route, would offset increased oil prices to an extent.
A twice weekly US West Coast schedule might work in the current environment - the problem with that being that costs associated with the outstation might not be serviced sufficiently - requiring a frequency of three flights per week.
From all of the soundings from C Mueller - it seems very likely that the T/A network, as operated by Aer Lingus aircraft specifically, will remain constant as of the current position for some time at least.
EI Premier