Welsh Bobby.
My guess is that the marketing teams would of done their homework re longhaul BRS/CWL, its more the fact of BRS having a stronger management team and offering a better deal in the long run, the idea of starting it from BRS is to get a longhaul charter market in place ready for the B787 which will be a perfect partner for longhaul at BRS.
And the area for pax using BRS is much more vast than CWL unfortunatly.
BRS has more TOM crew than CWL nowadays after the A320 FCA leaving CWL most were re located to BRS/EXT. And all crew are 767 trained, what seems to be happening is that crew from various bases are now operating all over the country, thus giving the TOM crewing a lot of flexibility.
I know BRS crew that have recently operated to destinations such BGI, AUA, MBJ, POP, CUN, SFB, MLE...You name it, from BHX, MAN, LGW. So crew for these flights is not an issue.
However all is not lost for CWL, I destinctly remember a TUI manager from head office saying that there was a future for longhaul at both BRS and CWL, I think its just a little blip for you boys over the bridge with longhaul, it will be back soon i'm sure.