Afraid there’s every chance it might simply be history repeating itself.
BA operated a Heathrow Shuttle service from Aldergrove forever, and overnight summarily executed it under the cover of 9/11. Good day to bury bad news and all that..
When BA made a return to Belfast and Dublin a number of years back, after they bought British Midland, they started up with virtually the same schedule and capacity on both BFS and DUB into Heathrow. Now the UK air tax has directed so many travellers south from NI to DUB that the BA op out of Dublin is easily twice the size of the one out of Belfast!
No doubt BA will be looking at their whole network - like every airline - in these unprecedented circumstances. If a route is already shrinking for them like Belfast Heathrow, and they can’t get any direct Government support to help keep it operating because of other airlines serving Belfast London, it may indeed suit them to up sticks and go. After all there hasn’t been as politically ready made and watertight an excuse to abandon anything, well since they last left NI eighteen and a half years ago! 😳
Sorry state of affairs indeed.