Difficult to realistically assess demand for something that isn't there.
A lot of it is dogma or political.
Shetland council have been trying for years to get the Denmark/Faroes/Iceland ferry to call in at Lerwick, even just once in a while - but Smyril refuses.
You can see the ferry sail past from Shetland!
If they just would agree to a trial - they could see how much demand there was.
Aberdeen - Shetland - Iceland or Shetland - Denmark would be an excellent trip.
Scotland needs physical trade links with it's Scandinavian neighbours.
You assess demand for something that isn’t there, in the same way as you do it for anything else. You make a business case for it and flog the idea to management and / or shareholders and / or a bank or two.
Scotland needs physical trade links with it's Scandinavian neighbours.
Scotland has (or rather had) excellent trade links with its European neighbours. Brexit put the mockers on those. There again, if Scotland couldn’t justify a ferry link when they were part of the EU, it’s hard to see what has changed since to say it will all be different now. Maybe the good folk of the Highlands and Lowlands could start their own, just as the Brittany farmers did? Though of course they’d want someone else to pay for it