[SignalHillHiker]

There's definitely enough of a market for a single direct flight to Europe.

For example, Air Canada is no charity and they're still providing a direct flight to London. They must be making money off it or they'd just cancel it.

If an airline were to come in and offer cheaper prices, they could take that market. Doesn't have to be Dublin (but should be, for the obvious reasons) - but any direct flight to Europe will do. Augment that with cheaper-still tickets to get the economy class travelers, and it's easy to fill a plane and pockets.

WestJet's flight was their most successful launch, and we know from Irish stats (Canada doesn't provide the same) that passenger numbers grew some 25% from launch during the relatively short time it was operational.

*****

RE: PAL, you're correct, but I just want to make sure people not from here know its focus isn't commercial air travel. It is world class at what it does (especially research, military work, weather monitoring, etc.), not some little hick airline. Also, PAL's prices to fly within the province are because their clientelle is mostly provincial government officials so no one cares what it costs. It's like when my car was hit last week - one of my quotes to repair the door was $4,000. The other was $2,000. One guess as to which of those two businesses is the primary auto body shop for auto insurance companies in the province. It's insurance, so no one cares, and prices are inflated.