It was well publicised that the Euro Direct HUY-BRU service was one of the few successful routes for 9R out of HUY. Eurodirect Belgie then took the route on when the parent company failed. It was subsequently operated as a SABENA franchise operation, and was increased to 3xdaily. The route was due to be upgraded to an EMB-120, but then SN phased out this a/c type and the D8-300 was deemed(correctly) too large an a/c to operate profitably on the route. The HUY-BRU route WAS working at the time.
The Esbjerg route was doing well in the early 90s, but demand wained as the years passed, going down to a weekly Gill Airways SH360 NCL-HUY-EBJ charter. I would think that there is not sufficient demand to operate this route now.
HUY-London has been a patchwork of services over the years. The main HUY-London market came from the North Bank, however, now there is Hull Trains which operates with an excellent reputation, and the mainline connecting services from Grimsby, Cleethorpes etc to London are fast and frequent. The only way I could see a service to London working is a low cost flight to Gatwick. Heathrow will never happen as the operational costs for such a small a/c would make the service ridiculously expensive to run. The HUY-NWI-LHR route was always busy, but the charges eventually got to AirUK and the route ceased.
The emergence of DSA onto the scene now dictates that HUY has very little chance of gaining a low-cost operator. The size of a/c is an issue as a 737/32S would be too large for the market. I would also say an F100 would be a touch on the optimistic side. Something more like an F70, or an EMB-170 would be suitable to operate limited services to the likes of Malaga, Alicante, Palma, Faro, Barcelona, Prague, Paris, Amsterdam, Belfast and Dublin. However, with DSA already having an impact on the HUY summer 2005 IT programme, all of this seems very unlikely.
I have had connections with HUY in the past, and it would seem that the management have been reluctant to lower fees sufficiently to attract a low-cost operator. HUY has missed out and could have been something more, if it had gotten it's act together before DSA came on the scene.
Time will tell, we shall see!
Regards
Mike