A regular commercial service can just tip the balance
I do wonder about that.
How much of a landing fee does a commuter turboprop or even a 737 pay? No more than a few hundred quid I am sure.
But look at what you need to provide to get that flight in there.
You need a fire crew big enough to put out the fire.... cost about £1M a year in salaries alone, for daylight cover. Vehicles and maintenance on top of that. A decent looking fire engine costs about £400k and you need several.
You need some sort of official IAP even if the MDA is virtually useless, and of course full ATC.... that's another million or so, with navaid maintenance contracts etc etc.
Then you need the world's supply of yellow jackets and a load of important looking blokes to wear them.... perhaps another half a million in salaries as an absolute minimum, with the "management" required to manage the "security" facilities. The place will spend a few k a year just on
stickers telling people about noise levels being above 75dba or whatever
Yet, airport managers drool over the prospect of jet traffic. They will kill for a 737, regardless of how much it costs them to support it. And if Donald Trump flies in with some bird, they fall over themselves to roll out the red carpet.