Florida route
I've trawled back through CAA stats for this century and the annual passenger figures on the Sanford route are as follows:
2007 17,774 2006 38,080 2005 22,120 2004 21,971 2003 18,055 2002 18,161
In 2001 and 2000 there were routes to both Sanford and Orlando:
2001 22,067 (S) 14014 (O) 2000 14,855 (S) 25,527 (O)
The best single month I can find is August 2006 when 9,981 travelled on the Sanford route.
It will be seen that in 2000 and 2001 there was a combined total of 40,000 and 36,000 respectively on the two routes. Orlando was then dropped and passenger numbers halved but began a very gradual build-up to 2006 when 38,000 travelled.
Last year numbers halved again and this coincided with a regular service from BRS on the route for the first time which carried 16,849 passengers in the year.
These are the raw passenger figures which may or may not make a profitable route - they certainly indicate there are large numbers of people willing to travel.
As for the FCA tech stops on the 767s from BRS, the story doing the rounds was that the route was to be built up to await the entry of the 787 which can reportedly (BRS master plan) operate these routes form BRS non-stop without load penalty. WATABENCH would know more about this than me. With the merger of TUI and First Choice whether this is still in the plans is anyone's guess, if it was true in the first place.
The BRS master plan seems to be relying on the 787 and future generations of aircraft for its long haul routes, especially transatlantic.