Spot on Brian, in an almost post travel agent era, name recognition among the general public in the home market is vital. Unfortunately the overseas carriers do not have that in the Irish Market.
Cork has always struggled to support two carriers on routes other than London. The 2003/7 period when we had routes to the likes of Prague, Budapest, Bratislava and Berlin was almost surreal. I would still be optimistic that we can get back above 3 million once the economy improves but it looks as if that growth is going to be driven by Aerlingus and Ryanair for the forseeable future.