You never quite know re the ABZ connection, but there certainly have been examples of that sort of thing in the past. Why do you think that british midland (as then was) started East Mids-Faro way back when? Rumours at the time suggested it was due to the location of certain directors' holiday homes, and I see it's still there - once weekly 737 on Saturdays with bmibaby. I bet that's no coincidence.
It will be interesting to see whether there is a knock-on effect to the local perception of bmi in TeesSide. Reports like "bmi pulls out of TeesSide" are bound not to do them any favours re continuity of the Heathrow service in the short to medium term, particularly if people get the wrong end of the stick and assume that it's one of the routes affected by the withdrawal of bmibaby. It is one of the occupational hazards of cross-selling between the bmi and bmibaby networks, in that many customers may not know the difference between a bmi and a bmibaby route.