Also, Amelia, where did you get your total for 2010 from? Not the CAA website I'm guessing?
Lost!
Anyway I made it clear that I was reporting mere rumours and speculation from Wikipedia which after all, as I stated, anybody can edit. Nevertheless a rumour ciruclated there is as useful as a rumour circulated here. It's whether the rumour has any basis in fact and makes any sense that one must try to decypher.
As to routes, there is no reason that additional routes could not work from LDY. ALC has approximately 100K pax from NI each year, FAO 130K and AGP 190K. This would indicated that LDY could sustain a new route to there.
The new routes would follow the same pattern as ALC: first year passenger numbers bolstered by those looking for something new, second year settling down as an established route used mostly by those with a reason or genuine interest in going including some who had already booked from other airports in the first year prior to the route's announcement. Accordingly FAO may have lower demand this year than last particularly if a new route is announced but ALC should have similar numbers in its third year to its second.
Palma, Paris and Amsterdam (or Eindhoven with Ryanair) would also work at approximately 140K pax p.a. each from NI with Barcelona on 120K and Lanzarote and Tenerife at about 90K each.