Doesn't recent history tell us that these classic thin business routes are fundamentally worse propositions than they have been for the last twenty years? If Leeds--BRU doesn't work for BMIR why should SOU-BRU? Frankfurt has never been much good for that level of operation. APD, locos, the recession, fuel prices, and a bit more direct long haul (emirates etc) have changed the terms of trade. Actually the economics of what used to be KLM-UK must be interesting since they are the ones who have really bucked the trend.
Seems to me BMIR are looking for routes where there are reasonable specific intra company flows to provide a baseload. How many of those are there?