I could definately see EasyJet pulling out some time over the winter period as everything seems to have gone very quiet on that front. The airline will have just three aircraft this winter, with the GVA route now being operated by an EMA based aircraft to cover for the EDI route that is being dropped. So it seems there is no chance that EasyJet would even attempt to try and launch another route from EMA to replace it. With no expansion from EasyJet since 2003, but instead route swapping, unless EasyJet has a sudden epiphany I can only see them stay in their rut or move to somewhere new, with DSA appearing a promising candidate.
This would definately give the bmi group a lot of room for further expansion. bmibaby has definately benefited from EasyJet pulling off of the Scottish routes over the last year, and I think that we'll only see bmi in whatever guise taking full advantage of the situation at EMA. There is plenty of room for expansion, and certainly gaining back BCN & the Italian routes would be a nice move. bmi regional's ERJs spend quite a lot of the late morning and early afternoon on the ground, and could probably fit in another route, but this might compromise the punctuality that regional want with their high yield routes.
The airport does need to get a major carrier to launch flights to EMA from their hub quite quickly. EMA really loses out to BHX by not having any airlines that can provide interline arrangements & a smooth transfer through a major hub. I've heard Lufthansa has been approached by the airport but such routes would compromise their BHX operations. Surely however it would compliment the bmi operations at the airport, and would draw in a whole number of passengers who would find BHX inconvenient?
Apparently Austrian is sniffing around BHX & EMA as CitiExpress have announced they will be dropping their Birmingham - Vienna route. Any news on this?