Originally Posted by brian_dromey
I would hesitate to call FR and irish airline for the purposes of this discussion. FR flies a large multitude of routes across Europe and makes no reference to the profitability of individual routes. While FR is an Irish company, its reach stretches far beyond the island, although IRL-UK routes are thought to be some of the most profitable in the netowrk. By the same token cityJet has a very small presence in the Irish market. You could argue that FR and WX are profitable in spite of their Irish operations, rather than because of them.
Their HQ is in Ireland, all their staff are on Irish contracts, they pay tax in Ireland, they operate on an Irish AOC, and their aircraft are registered in Ireland. While they are very much spread across Europe, they are by all means an Irish airline.
I wonder would you be so quick to dismiss Aer Lingus as an Irish airline even though they've had bases residing outside Ireland...