T3 seem to be a very resiliant operator.They seem to have the right size of aircraft serving a niche market.They are targetting the business market(with the fares they charge!).I am certain some of the rotations(especially off peak)are single figure pax,yet T3 makes money out of them,so there you go!
Re Belfast,I have a feeling T3 will continue on Belfast(whether BFS as at present or BHD remains to be seen).I hope there is a market for both BE & T3,although my own thoughts are that if BE's fares are lower,you would think pax would cross over from T3 to BE.However T3 mainly time their flights to serve business pax(Belfast is actually the exception,the single M-F T3 rotation leaves here late morning,arrives back here early afternoon.)T3 recently increased capacity from a JE32 to JE41,albeit the JE32 was transferred to the new enhanced WIC/INV route with ABZ.
BMI R tried to force T3 off the ABZ routes to EMA & NWI(10 rotations M-F at peak!!!)but failed.T3 has EMA to itself (4 rotations M-F & 1xSun)& both still do NWI,but seem to have an "agreement" not to compete as their timings do not conflict with each other.
You may think I work for T3 - I don't,honest!!!I am though an admirer for how they came on to many of these ABZ routes when others pulled off,& made themselves into a successful outfit.
Re ABZ runway,I agree Rooster! But then I never thought I'd see 24hr ops given the go ahead either.