Originally Posted by
buckeyefanflyer
I am surprised the city did not offer the same to other airlines Delta, British Airways, even United for similar service say to London or Paris. Nice it’s year round.
United started BOS-LHR it’s not a hub yes Boston much larger then CLE but Boston has lots of direct service to Europe already.
(Posting this from MetroHealth under the influence of IV narcotic goodness so apologies if coherence is lacking)
First, EI is generally a low cost structure airline so they can make thin routes work where "full fat" airlines would struggle with profitability even with subsidy.
Second, I would not be surprised if the city made a similar offer to other airlines and of EI was the only one to bite. DL/BA/AF also have very robust US-side captive(ish) feeder networks to Europe via either their own flights or joint ventures so the marginal traffic gains are probably not worth it relative to both real and opportunity (ability to use plane and crew elsewhere) costs.
(I'm also not entirely clear how much of this was started by the city approaching EI vs how much was EI approaching the airport which could also impact the players invited to play)