It's an interesting point but it's not just about numbers but yield, what fares are being charged, load factors, I've just done a quick calculation on the presumption that with 12 services of 48 seats weekly in each direction to/from SEN that's 1,152 seats per week, 40,000 divided by 52.14 weeks per year = 767 passengers per week with equates to expected, first year, load factors of 66.5% which I would suggest to be bl00dy excellent figures on such a route and in the first year.
Of course objector(s) don't want to listen to such reasoning!