There is definitely a good, wealthy catchment for a little regional airport like Cambridge but the task of registering in the minds of every citizen in that catchment that they should check out their local airport first before say Stansted requires a heck of a lot of good old basic blanket advertising and a few publicity stunts thrown in for good measure. You can spend thousands each month on local papers, local radio, billboards, bus adverts, train station posters, post code mailshot letterbox drops, website banners, e-mail broadcasts and telesales campaigns to the corporate markets but still you'll find your next door neighbour ten miles away from the airport didn't know you could fly anywhere from there. It's a process of time, it takes a new airport flying new scheduled routes a good few years to get the recognition and familiarity going. It's a long, hard slog and it costs stupid amounts of money. But, five years down the road after steady routes to the usual suspects and your on the radar of all the locals and before they book that Stansted flight, they'll just check out the local alternative by default. If they get the concept of the hassle-free terminal experience, the easy parking, the quick in and out processing that means when you turn up you can be down the runway in 30 minutes of out of the airport in 10 minutes from touch down, then they'll get it and will pay a small premium for that benefit.
Just takes a lot of pain and a few years to get the ball rolling.
It's a great benefit for the likes of Southend to have that new rail station walking distance from the terminal but they still will have sunk crazy sums of money into that place for the last five years and the return on that investment will be a long hard slog. Places like Cambridge have a 45 minute train run from Kings Cross but that isn't going to feed the routes, it's the locals living within 30 mins drive time who can dump their cars next to the terminal and just go.
It would help if to kick start the whole thing they waived parking fees for the first year or so though.
The amount of inward investment and growth in the Cambridge area is staggering! it's the most dynamic and exciting economic growth zone in the UK right now. It can work and should work, it's just time and a steady commitment to spreading the word via many different channels.
Of course, you still need the right routes to the right destinations with the right code-share opportunities too to make it stack up.