The Easy rumours have been around for a while - Stelios giving an open call to BHX and CVT to "make me an offer I can't refuse" - but they also said they weren't interested in Rugby because it would 'cannibalise' their ops @ EMA & LTN.
Now CVT & the Rugby proposals might (conceptually at least) be a million miles apart, but where is Easy's appetite for expansion in the current climate - they are hardly up to much at EMA, and could have got that offer at BHX when BACON cleared out, but instead FR came in. At that point, prices came down all round, and it is now difficult to see any of the current players at BHX or EMA moving to CVT. I'm sure Jet2, Globespan, Aer Lingus etc will all have been in talks, and all will have made their own decisions - that is why management chose to pursue other options. The sad reality is that an airport which should have been able to carve a nice little niche for itself in the passenger market doesn't look like it will be able to do so in the forseeable future.
Is there a way passenger flights could return to CVT? Here's a suggestion for debate, but I think the deal is already done & dusted - BHX is to spend £100m+ (+ cost over-runs, diversions etc) on a runway extension, which will open up many more long haul destinations, but how many new flights will it actually bring in? Would it be cheaper for them to just buy CVT, and extend the runway there?