I am going to bet there's been a *remarkably* good deal with the airport for United to put their toe in the water here. Well done for getting that far!, it should make the point NCL can do it and ideally tempt them back on market rates for 2016?
Regional / seasonal long haul does seem to be making a comeback, one sees Air Canada Rouge in places mainline used to frequent in winter. Shannon and Dublin do remarkably well with seaonal US flights on the B757, on fully depreciated aircraft working very hard in summer.
I wonder what the medium term strategy for all these B757 routes is going to be? The B763 / B788 may be too large for some markets so are we looking at B737-MAX or A321 NEO?