All-The-Nines
I don't agree one bit, I think your conclusion is very wrong! Stansted is in no way held back by its location. It has a huge catchment area which covers all of London and East Anglia as awell as counties like Herforshire, Cambridshire, Northamptonshire, the list goes on. Even in Leicestershire and the Midlands, Stansted is a more than viable option if it offers the best flights/prices or whatever! And I would know, living in Leicester! Lots of us have used Stansted and Luton instead of East Midlands and Birmingham many times, so we are definitely included in their catchment areas. In Leicester, we tend to use Heathrow only for long-haul flights and very occassionally Gatwick for the same reason or for some holiday charter. I would be surprised if anywhere near many people from outside London and East Anglia even knew that there was a Southend airport!! So to say it's catchment area is small, or even smaller than other London airports is absoloutely not the case!
Also, Stansted's load factors are very impressive, easily as good as Gatwick's if not better. On average, aircraft were over 80% full in 2011, see parapraph 5 here:
BAA launches new Stansted appeal
Instead, the reason for Stansted's passenger declines is down to BAA's outrageously bad management of the airport. Remember that Gatwick was also underperforming for a time when BAA owened but once sold off to GIP, look at the transformation it's had! Gatwick is growing quite strongly now and passenger experience is also better. The same could easily be achieved at Stansted when that is also sold off within the coming months. Stansted is currently not competetive with the other London airports and it would seem BAA's only interest in owning Stansted is to reduce rivalry to Heathrow and is there only to further subsidise Heathrow growth and improvements. BAA clearly have very little commitment to growing Stansted and making it the best airport they possibly can. A new owner, in complete rivalry with other London airports would be totally committed to making it the most successfull airport they can make it. Stansted could very quickly turn around and return to growth with the right ownership, just like Gatwick has done!