Isn't all this talk of a FR base irrelevant since they've already axed STN-BLK. The route just did not have enough traffic to support a twice daily 738 service. They were practically giving away the seats yet rarely had a load factor more than about 50%. There has been a general downturn in the market for domestic flights in the UK, domestic England ones especially as people try to avoid huge airport queues and restrictions on luggage. Changing the times might have improved passenger numbers in the short term but in the long term there would probably be a further downward trend.