Having a first/business cabin does not define an airline as being a true LCC; I didn't say that.

First off, the LCC moniker is derived from the marketing strategy of the carrier.

There are fundamentally two marketing strategies in business: price or differentiation. LCC's are focused on price. The way that they can focus on price is to be a low cost provider. No company that wants a price strategy can avoid focusing on its cost. Legacies, for the most part, claim that they focus on differentiation--at least you hear all kinds of statements about business travelers, etc.; however, they end up contaminating their message by communicating low fares. If a carrier truly wants to focus on price, it shouldn't have a mixed message. It's not surprising that companies with a focused marketing strategy seem to remain profitable (in both the US and Europe--Asian companies are relatively new) If a carrier decides that it wants to differentiate itself (service usually), it incurs costs in this effort. Marketing to business travelers is very different than targeting Joe Six-pack. The company incurs other operating costs in the effort. Targeting the front end of the demand curve can be very profitable. EI markets to both budget conscious consumers and business travelers. LUV does that two, but LUV doesn't incur the costs of having two classes of service. I don't believe that EI can thrive with a mixed message. There are many choices of flights into and out of Ireland. If it's not part of an alliance, I believe the company will find it challenging to retain its high margin customers. The airline must either join another alliance or maintain reciprocity with a few select carriers to give customers more choices about where they can fly.