Lets see. What European countries connect directly from California? UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Denmark, Turkey* and Russia*. Some very very big populations served there although some are seasonal I think. Definitely good yields there in most cases I'm sure.
I'm tired of people insisting that EI should have to fly to SFO/LAX. If there was such a great market for it why haven't one of the big US carriers done it ...... ever? EI have done it with some success but at the moment it's gone and rightly so. Fuel is an issue along with other overheads. I don't see any airlines flying to Poland, Austria, Czech, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Baltic states, Finland, Balkan states, Norway, Sweden. I could go on but you get the point. Many of the big carriers are already feeding into Ireland and the other countries mentioned above via a main European hub. Dublin/Ireland is not a major hub ....... or at least not yet.
Don't get me wrong it would be nice to see EI going back to California but not for the sake of flying an aircraft to keep big businesses happy and for a load of seats to go empty or for some sort of romantic/sentimental notion. Why the demand on EI? Is the same request being put to DL? UA? AA? You can sure they've looked at it too ........ for all of a second.
If EI go back to California they'll want to make money and for no other reason.
* very likely serving a large part of their Asian/Micro Asian population. So do they count?
Sorry rant over.
Last edited by EISNN; 3rd Mar 2013 at 19:32.