brian dromey
Im not sure chasing a North American route is the best use of resources
I think your right on the money there. Here in UK many regional airports managements, and more particularly airport supporters (spotters) are obsessed with getting direct services to the USA - however for a regional airport to do it's job right, it should be serving business routes to the region's major trading partner - which, again I guess, is the rest of the EU - not the USA.
Surely as you said routes to cities such as Zürich (EEA not EU), Frankfurt, Milan, Copenhagen etc. would serve the Cork business person rather better and that's where the effort needs to be directed.