You forgot to add "IMHO". Because, you have given that opinion before in the form of a question, and asking the same question over and over and expecting a different answer is . . .
I believe it was eye who gave an excellent list of possible answers to that question, and you have not refuted their possibility -
I, for one, believe that eye's suggestions were good ones, and that there are many factors that influence an airline's decision to enter into a new market - here are a few:
1. Does it use our current resources to their greatest potential, given our current committments to our historical markets?
2. Will the Russian environment be as difficult for us as it was FEDEX ? and this is reflective of a widely held belief that Russia is too corrupt to work with, which is not true - many businesses have found Russia to be getting less difficult in the last few years.
3. Can we effectively work in that market, given our current relationships with European carriers who serve that market, albeit with multi-leg flights?
4. And what did people think when IBM did not get into the PC market? They thought nothing of it until the upstarts (Microsoft, Apple, etc etc) built the market - now IBM REGRETS not getting in earlier.
It is only with hindsight that one can say someone was brilliant or foolish. Ahead of time, it is a matter of how much information leads one to a logical conclusion that there is merit in the market and business plan. The U.S. Dept of Transportation believes that Baltia's plan has merit, and so do many of us out here.
