To answer the thread title directly, what problem with NEMA? They were one of the first regional airports to be developed by the no-frills carriers, hence their rate of growth has slowed as the market matures. NEMA is no longer unexploited territory. And inevitably, carriers serving or considering new EMA operations MUST take account of competition elsewhere within the region. FlyBe, MyTravel Lite and BMI Baby at BHX plus Thomsonfly and HLX at CVT all feed off the substantial but not limitless Midlands catchment area. DSA will impact too, and some pax will leak to LTN/STN.
NEMA need only consider itself to have a 'problem' if significant loss of services (or a major carrier) occurs. A period of consolidation allowing it's generous portfolio of relatively new services to bed-in is healthy. Speculative expansion by no-frills carriers into the region is likely to prove damaging in the medium term; too many carriers are trying to serve the same few destinations from the same Midlands at high frequency. Success for the next couple of years will be measured by not losing the services already attracted. NEMA will be best served by not further contributing to the no-frills over-expansion now. The marketplace will dictate when new services come to EMA, not the MAplc marketing machine. Bearing in mind the scale of growth enjoyed by EMA since MAplc gained ownership, talks of a MAplc conspiracy theory restraining EMA expansion is clearly ludicrous. Why would they stifle their own cash-cow? MAN itself has had to watch potential new operators go elsewhere due to it's critical lack of peak-hour slots.