Thats a good argument as well dubinaviator. Indeed the UK is around 60 million. Question I would put forward is though just how many million Irish have emigrated to the US over the years. That one most probably would make the mind boggle. Does NOC really need numerous services a week to the US, or would a weekly maybe even seasonal NOC-JFK or Boston service not give NOC the boost it needs without affecting anywhere else greatly? I don't think NOC or SNN would ever vastly affect DUB on transatlantic no matter what the offering, and I don't see history or government involvement at SNN as a reason for NOC not having transatlantic services. If deregulation is good enough on european services the same should be applied to transatlantic, after all DUB could offer a lot more global services than what it does, given all the emigration further afield in recent years.