Maybe the problem is that there just isn't the demand to sustain the sort of operation you dream of. Carriers come and carriers go . . .
Perhaps you're right about the demand, but carriers have not come and gone, they've just never come!
Yes Macair came and went bust but that's the only one and you cannot draw a conclusion about an airport from the failure of a fledgling airline. My point is that the airport for whatever reason have singularly failed to attract services. I think the size of the two Belfast airports has stiffled, not demand from LDY, but supply at LDY, as the Belfast light shines brighter to new operators while existing operators won't set up in competition to themselves.
I agree that fragmentation isn't helpful but implicit in this statement I feel is always the thought that LDY should therefore close, that because it is council run it is in some way less legitimate, and that the annual council subvention is somehow cheating, despite the fact that BFS started life as a government owned facility.
Don't forget that LDY also feels the effect of fragmented services. LDY lost EMA to BHD. But having had the service first does not entitle LDY to passengers who if given a choice would prefer to use another airport. The same therefore obviously applies to BFS and BHD with regard to passengers would would prefer to use LDY.
So in summary, to provide services to as many people as possible as geographically close as possible it would be necessary to close one of the two airports that are beside one another. So which one would you suggest? BFS or BHD?