Ryanair have a lot of new planes to find homes for and are always threatening to pull out of airports. No reason to think that those tactics have not been played at Luton in recent time. We will base more, but you have to subsidies us, if not we will pull the entire fleet.
No doubt the amount of money an airport actually makes from a Ryanair operation is somewhat less than other incumbent airlines?
For an airport to be profitable, does not necessarily mean that you need millions of passengers, it all depends on subsidies and how much the passengers spend in the tinminal etc.
I am sure that the airport would welcome easyJet adding to their based fleet, rather than more Ryanair airframes?
Mind you, the airport seems to be under a 'care & maintenance' programme in preparation for being handed back to LBC, no other noticeable infrastructure upgrades seem imminent.