WindSheer
You make a very good point about the Toronto route. In some ways BRS has been unlucky though. I vaguely remember Nation Air operating to YYZ in the 80s from BRS and I certainly remember Odyssey International doing so around 89/90 with 757s. At first they went via NCL to pick up pax en route but it was quickly realised they could fill the aircraft from BRS so stopped at (I think) PIK to take on fuel, but not pax. Can't remember which tour operator (s) Odyssey carried for but the airline went bust after, I believe, the first season.
Can't recall another operator until 2000 when Royal Air did the route with A 310s via GLA. The next year Canada 3000 took over Royal Air and the equipment became 757s also via GLA. Canada 3000 then ceased to operate at the end of that summer season and the Canada cupboard has been bare since.
Apart from CWL, the airport down the road at EXT has had a weekly summer YYZ for many years, usually via another airport, I believe BHX this year. Now there must be a reason why no-one is jumping in to fill the void at BRS. I remember speaking to someone fairly senior at BRS just before the new terminal was built asking why there was a dearth of transatlantic routes (in fact there weren't any then). The answer was that airlines would be "falling over themselves" to launch such routes when the new terminal was finished. Apart from CO we are still waiting!
I don't believe that a lack of potential pax is the problem. The BRS area is far more populous than EXT and more so than CWL and it is a well-off area too - just read Barbara Cassani's book on 'Go' to see it was BRS's exceptional access to a populous, well-heeled clientele, many with oodles of disposable income, that made the airline such a success there from day one.
The airport seems to attract pax for most of its routes like the proverbial bees and honeypots so why is the Atlantic ignored? Both the present MD and his predecessor have assured me in letters that the runway is not the problem so what is the problem?