Ryan2000: For decades Aerlingus has been trying to persuade business passengers in the Cork area to use Shannon to get to New York. They even provided free limousines at one stage to transport them there. However most prefer to travel via LHR.
I'm still not certain that normal business logic prevails when it comes to Aerlingus' transatlantic operation at Shannon. Is the A330 operation there profitable? It was losing money for years and yet they still operated it.
I presume if Shannon get 2 757's, it will free up an A330. San Francisco and Dubai as a code share with Ethiad are two possibilities in this scenario.
Sorry to kill your dreams but EI do not have any vendetta against ORK. They want to make a profit.
-"No-one made them buy the A330".....no-one did, but economics did. Are you siggesting that EI in the mid-1990's should have bought B757's just to serve ORK-USA?
-Yes for years EI did persuade business pax to use SNN, Why? Because thats where EI operated from/. As for the limos'.....this was an old perk of flying in Premier, you got Limo pick-up.....it wasn't a way to hurt ORK.
-"normal business logic"? Hve you noticed how EI over the last 3 years have greatly scaled back their SNN ops? They even suspend T/A serices over the Winter as its not profitable at this point.
-"Is the A330 operation profitable" Well the 2012 results say that it is. EI previously operated the route and lost money because the Govt was calling the shots.
And to be predantic.....a codeshare with EY would go to Abu Dhabi, not Dubai. Why do this when EY already have 10 flights a week?
And the DUB-SFO would need 1.5-2 A330 units to operate at 4-5 weekly,which is the lowest entry point EI need to make it attractive to business class pax.