Offtopic briefly - read the whole debate, it's absolute nonsense to state catchment areas dictate how successful an airport will be! Ldy has a far greater catchment area than snn, yet it doesn't have 3million pax.
Very true. The naysayers always cite the catchment in narrow black an white terms... "Airport A is closer to a city than airport B therefore airport A will be a success", GWY being another clear example.
Proximity to an urban centre(s) obviously lends a natural advantage, but it ignores many other factors... cost base, fare costs, parking ease, airline mix, route offering, travel convenience, aircraft type and reliability, proximity of other transport modes, not to mention the total population of the wider catchment in a very "unurbanised" region of Europe.
Then there's the Ryanair factor which is a a large draw in itself. Bet we'd be surprised by how many travel to NOC from the midlands and beyond the 1 hour compass circle for sun and other routes.