With regards to the University flying school this was a group of 6 Cessna's that were based there. Leeds Uni flew them but for a reason no one can find out they were ejeected when their contract ended. Only one other airport would take them and that was Sandtoft. I agree though that this was probably to the benefit of LBA rather than the detriment.
DSA is not at the end of country lanes in fact it is served by the Great North Road. Granted it then drops onto one B road before hitting Finningley itself but this will all change should the new road be built.
I disagree that DSA seems to have met its operational maximum within 12 months although I do feel as everyone does that it needs to increase its operators if it is to expand further. As someone connected to the airport told me recently DSA as hit its 3 year plan for Pax in under 10 months. That isn't bad for a regional airport.
Talking to the Taxi drivers at DSA opened my eyes to the pax locales. He told me the longest trip he had taken was to take a passenger back to Manchester who was using DSA regulalrly for their flights. Apparently Leeds is a regular trip and I personally have seen quite a few Cab companies from leeds dropping people off. The 1/2 million customer in October was from Hull as well. I do wonder what percentage of local people have used the Airport for flights though. If DSA was to rely on locals then we would fail miserably but thats not the case.
As for operators Easy are in for the winter. We have the return of the pilgrim flights, we have the cruise flights from next year also. Also the long haul thomson. TCX are back ( did they ever leave). The only downside to the airport was the lack of takeup of the Transun Lapland trip which ended cancelled due to lack of interest but then at nearly a 1000 quid for a family of four for one day I think they priced themselves out of the market so close to Xmas
Rob