Unless any of us are directly involved in negotiations with/at STN, it's unfair to assume that nothing is being done behind the scenes. And even if their efforts have been lacking recently, you can hardly blame them when they've known for a few years that it was likely that they would have dispose of STN.
There's a limit to what STN can do if other airports are offering lower fees. They can't just slash their fees for one operator to match/beat a competing airport, as every other operator would want the same deal. Places like Southend have nothing to lose by doing everything they can to entice Easyjet. If STN matched the deal that Easyjet got at Southend, you can bet Ryanair and the other airlines would be demanding their fees are slashed. Net result = STN's income declines by much more than if they just accept they will lose some routes. And this would have lowered the price that they get when selling STN.
Last edited by wb9999; 11th Feb 2013 at 09:14.