Competition is generally a great ally for consumers and for ROUTES like Belfast-London it works quite well but it doesn't work at all on the marginal routes. I personally do not care for Ryanair and I believe they will do all they can to spoil things for other airlines, that can be considered normal competitive business in many cases but it stifles consumer choice in this case.
Tescos and Sainsburys may be two supermarkets but they have (I guess) 30 or more outlets spread over the province providing lots of choice for the consumer and plenty of opportunity for either of them to make profit - not the same for airports/airlines
BHD and BFS (and LDY) as I have said before needs managed, there is absolutely no need for BHD to offer long haul services and the same applies to BFS and certain short haul routes (what used to be called commuter routes) but there is a lot of common ground. I am not a big fan of government but I feel that our government should have a role to play in this, as much as an adjudicator as anything else (God help us with our politicians).
With the right controls all airports can co-exist successfully/profitably and the consumer can get as good a deal as is possible in this relatively small market!