Was in Cork collecting people last night and it has changed a lot since I was last their, first time in the new terminal, last flew a few months before it opened in 2006. Must say I like the terminal. Are all aircraft stands in front of the building full at night, two FR's were parked to the side a little.
UA operates year-round daily to EWR and summer only to ORD
EI planning year-round service on 757s to BOS and JFK
DL dropped winter a few years ago, and operates a summer seasonal service.
Perhaps DL would be willing to drop a summer seasonal route to SNN in favour of trying a year round ORK service to a slightly different catchment area.
I think that UA are best suited to a ORK service because of the strength of their EWR hub, which is larger than DLs hub in JFK.
US to PHL i believe misses the NYC point to point traffic.
I'd love to see EI try a JFK - ORK - AGP service on a 757. I think both routes would benefit each other.
DL moving to Cork would have the same outcome, demand will still be weak in winter and yield will possibly be slightly better than SNN but not enough to keep it sustainable. EI going year round from SNN won't have a major capacity change as they will still reduce between Jan and March, I expect instead of keeping 2 B757 running to BOS and JFK daily they will drop to 1 for those 10 weeks or so as demand for B757 will still be weak.