Some good points but the one point missed is that airlines do consolidate when economies are going down, most businesses do in fact. Consolidation in this industry does mean that those airports with less flights will be more likely to lose them and those that have more flights will be less likely to.
This is also because more the airline costs will be fixed at their larger stations. During better times economically, more regional airports prospered, the hope now must be to ride out the recession to the point where airlines want to grow new markets again.....also maybe even properly grow the likes of Manchester again, as their figures are the furthest away from what had been forecast 5-10 years ago.
If the government want to give these airports and regions a kick start, all they need do is admit their APD tax is counter-productive and scrap it, therefore returning UK airports to a level playing field with Europe.