Oh and from what I heard, BMI could and did make MME work. The route turned a profit for the majority of flights.
Sadly however, an Embraer or 319 from LBA or MME takes up the same amount of extremely valuable space on the ground, and in the congested air around Heathrow.
50 odd passengers on a domestic shuttle, in a one class configuration, paying around a hundred quid... or a nearly full, shiny 321 or 330 with premium passengers, on a high-revenue flight from Cairo...
Not surprising that the MME/LBA slots disappeared.
RTG!