Helen49, not so much the mindset of the passengers, but the mindset of the airlines. It's the airlines who decide where to launch flights. The airport went from 0 to 2 million passengers in 3 years. So passengers are willing to travel if the flights are there.
The biggest problem for Robin Hood was they relied on Thomson Fly as a launch airline, and they went and ditched their budget airline model after a couple of years and went charter only. And it's been downhill since then.