Uncle Monty
We did discuss Flybe's scaling down of its BRS-BHD schedule in this thread about three weeks ago. For what's it's worth I believe that Flybe may have recognised the futility of trying to compete with easyJet on the Belfast route, especially in winter, albeit easy goes to BFS and Flybe to BHD.
That said, I would not be surprised to see a return of this summer's Flybe BRS-BHD schedule in summer 2006.
From BRS's point of view it's not all doom and gloom with Flybe because on the plus side the Bergerac is running thoughout the winter (3 rotations per week - last winter it did not start until February), and there is a M, W, F plus (I think Sun) Jersey rotation when Flybe had none last winter. In addition the Bordeaux (4 weekly rotations) and the Toulouse (6) will continue through the winter as last year.
Whether Flybe's undoubted success at EXT has blunted the airline's enthusiasm for BRS is cetainly debatable. When Flybe announced expansion at BRS about three years ago it was reported in the local press that the airline expected to have around fifteen routes within a year or two. Well, they haven't - yet.
I think similar expectations/hopes about Flybe expansion were in the air at other airports such as NCL and LBA. Thus far new routes have been relatively limited at those places as well.
We might have to wait until the sale of EXT to the owners of BRS is either allowed or blocked (OFT currently investigating the possible anti competitiveness question of such a sale) to see the full scale of Flybe's plans for BRS vis-a-vis EXT.