The real issue lurking here is not only how to best serve new markets but also protect the existing ones.

To the former point I have no qualms agreeing the NYC area, or to narrow it down, the EWR catchment area, has the potential to generate a substantial amount of business and leisure travel. Yet at the same time NYC is not the only city that demands service to India, nor is the only city in America that demands international travel.

The point you fail to realize, or at least articulate, is that 1) focusing solely on ex. NYC routes (i.e. to keep up with DL) allowed two, if not more, new entrants, plus the addition of increased frequencies by established players, into the IAH market to cherry pick CO's bread and butter traffic and 2) the yields for an IAH-BOM/DEL flight may exceed those of EWR-MAA/HYD.

I'm in no way saying CO should not expand out of EWR -- they should! But expansion should proceed on a balanced front where routes are expanded from all the hubs...lest they risk loosing even more market share to existing competitors, or even worse, face new ones. Focusing solely on EWR is not the way forward for CO, nor is focusing exclusively on IAH or CLE; a balanced approach is required.