There are many reasons the current owners can not turn a profit. first and foremost the fact that you cant run PIK on a par with a primary airport.
APD and Independence are not so much red herrings, but something the current management would like to blame, rather than look inwards at their own failures.
The airport is going down hill and lets face it no investor will take on the elephant that has been created by infratil. However (and I will state for the record I do know what I am talking about) the airport made a commercial profit with no ryanair. It could do so again, with the right drive and vision for running a low cost airport.
The campaign is to highlight this fact and encourage both politicians, public bodies and hopefully a cooperative to be formed to bring the airport back. It can be done, but not by a management team who take months to decide on a date in January for a holiday show ( Any Saturday) and still cant confirm a date, this included companies like Mercury and Sunspot who wanted to support it....
Other airports in the UK are making a profit with less traffic..