I agree that in recent years BA has held back BHX in as much as the BHX mangement have always relied on its presence. However, it shows the calibre of management when they didn't really do any planning for its demise.
They keep putting off the decisions about the international pier rebuild. They are delaying the runway extension planning applications. This is vital to the airports growth and they can't even get that right.
They are preparing to offload more of the staff. They started with the Fire service. Offloaded to SERCO under the guise of a joint venture company.
The rumours of a sell off by the shareholders are not doing the place much good either.
I would say that it was acting more like a small regional airport than the second city gateway it should be. However, small regional airports are beginning to catch up and will be overtaking before long.
I don't think more LC ops are the answer. Low cost only give you pax numbers. The Pax have to shop to make the airport money these days. LC pax tend not to, so Pax numbers are not the holy grail they once were.
The next 18 months may turn out to be very interesting if the rumours of changes in ownership pan out as true.