Let's be fair with this, the concept of a direct US destination is nothing new to the LBA management. Various overtures were made a number of year ago to several US airlines namely Continental, United, American, and one other that I can't remember of the top of my head. Continental at the time were interested in the concept of operating small aircraft from UK regionals due mainly to the fact that CO at that time were not part of a major alliance and lacked the ability to operate into the lucrative LHR market due to the bilaterals. After a number of discussions etc between the airport and CO, LBA ended up being one of a list of 5 airports in the UK that they were considering (and I stress considering) operating from. The plan at the time was to use 737-700's in a majority C class layout into these airports. 9/11 came along and obviously ruined Continental's plans. Ironically, a few years later, 3 out of the 5 airports on the original Continental list have recently gained the service. The important thing to note is that LBA maintained a good relationship with Continental that still exists today (and for info, also with Emirates and PIA).
When the original discussions took place, this was obviously done at looking at the airports market/throughput/infrastructure at that particular time. The market is obviously much different now(even though the infrastructure may not be) but over a million Jet2 pax out of LBA is just one indication of the willingness of people to fly from their local airport. I believe that it is a very positive sign that the airport are beginning to adjust/redo their business case for a direct US link, not just because EDI, BRS and BFS got it. Something or nothing may come of it, there may be much more behind it than we know, we need to wait and see, but you've got to be in it to win it, as they say.
It's very easy to kick the airport in the orchestra stalls when it is being reactive to a situation which is often the case, but let's not diss them too much when they are being proactive.