Just for the sake of being a pedant and devil's advocate and injecting some long overdue reality here....
Before I start I couldn't care less about Peel nor do I have any vested interest, I just think this forum is swamped by dreamers and hopers and that good old "never say die" bunch of "fans" and is based purely on hope than realism for many. According to Wikipedia, reliability I cannot guarantee:
The airport has been going for 38 years before Peel were selected, not quite the 50 claimed.
Peel presided over continued growth for some period, up to the airport's record operations level.
To the best of my knowledge they (Peel) didn't cause the global recession which caused many of the community who might have used the airport to be unable to due to economic reasons.
Whether or not Peel are rich is irrelevant. They're a commercial operation not a charity and if it isn't making money and in their opinion (it's their cash so it's up to them remember) isn't likely to, then they won't invest further monies.
I think it can be easy to subscribe to the argument about MME being in the shadow of NCL and to a lesser extent, LBA. Let's just forget about them for the minute and instead believe that the people of Teesside deserve to use and benefit from the facility of the international airport that is on our doorstep.
You can't ignore the elephant in the room. Two major competitors are on the doorstep and whether or not the good folk of Teesside deserve a facility is a moot point. They have a dwindling second class over-priced airport.
What I'm most curious about is the accountability of Peel to the local people.
They're not. Only to shareholders so to some extent the local authorities but effectively not to the populace at large.
surely there are opportunities to attract cargo airlines such as DHL who appear to be running at capacity at EMA
Not a snowballs chance. Have you any idea of the level of investment in the infrastructure in and around EMA that DHL have made? Check out Undercover Boss from a few weeks ago to see. Apart from being less than strategically located it's never going to happen.
Peel could compete for airlines such as Thomson or Thomas Cook for holiday flights to proven destinations like Palma, Alicante, Tenerife and Gran Canaria
They could, yes, even should. But on a dwindling market why would they when they can get better yields elsewhere? Apart from last year, package holidays have been declining year on year since the 70's.
Is there a chance of having the Heathrow link reinstated with an airline like Virgin's Little Red.
No, absolutely none.
You may now proceed to shoot me down in flames and tell me how I should bugger off back to somewhere else etc etc ad nauseum.....