Southside bobby, can you give me a straight answer to the following questions:
1/ Do you agree that it is a less than sensible strategy for an airline facing reportedly serious levels of financial stress to suddenly launch a series of new routes from an airport it does not currently serve.
2/ Do you agree that Emirates are, on the face of it, able to make LH services work at airports (BHX and NCL being examples) from where other long-haul services have been withdrawn?
If the answer to both of the above questions is yes, then I can't really see why the debate is still ongoing. And I'm honestly not sure what Jet2's undisputed success at STN has to do with long-haul. Jet2 has been incredibly successful at LBA, but I wouldn't be advocating Leeds as a viable long-haul base just because of it.