Back in the days of the old terminal at BHX we used to have a name for these sorts of stories - "Buffet Rumours".
They were usually started by spotters and seldom came to anything!
As previous posters have said, with oil prices as they are and the industry fighting for it's own survival a new marginal route to a UK provincial city is about at like as stepping in rocking horse do. In fact, I think it's more likely that some marginal UK transatlantics may bite the dust unless fuel drops in price, and the credit crunch miraculously solves itself - fat chance of either I reckon in the short to medium term.