Originally Posted by
racedo
IAG to buy it and use Dublin as a stopover to clear customs and immigration for some of their US flights and as a stopover on way back to drop off and pick up. BA strength is as a predominantely a UK-US carrier.
IAG then use the additional slots they have to further develop their route network to the east.
The US customs/immigration preclearance is entirely subject to the whim of the US government. The facility at Shannon has recently had its longstanding afternoon hours curtailed, under the pretext of "saving government money" but actually due to lobbying in Washington by US carriers who saw the success of the BA London City to JFK service using this, which they had no equivalent service for, so their Washington contacts came up with a way to spike the service.
If IAG developed a big advantage using this service, then it may well miraculously just disappear.