jdcg EI long haul routes are a lot better established with the 44 million Irish Americans market than VS could ever hope for. Dropping that brand would be insane.
This oft quoted 44 million is a misnomer as you will find this 44 million also includes many who can trace Italian / German / British / Scandanavian etc as part of the same heritage.
EI Longhaul in 2011 will carry way less than 1 million passengers so even taking a 50-50 split between Irish originating passengers and US ones they are carrying 1% of the supposed Irish Americans or roughly 9,000 a week.
In 2010 2.5 Million passengers used LHR-JFK and I don't see BA boasting of it.
Aer Lingus in the US is an Airline with services to Ireland and anybody relying on anything more than that.
If there was a brand that strong then Conti and others would struggle to get a look in.