Just a brief recap of the situation, Pandy, but I have no technical knowledge of aircraft performance so I will steer clear of that one other than to report in general terms what has been put into the public domain by the airport and by one airline.
When the airport master plan was published around ten years ago it stated that Boeing had told the airport management that their 787 would be able to operate a distance in excess of 5,000 nautical miles from the existing runway.
The master plan recognised a potential problem with the full length parallel taxiway as the wings of anything larger than a B 767 would overhang the boundary fence immediately beyond which is a public road. It was envisaged the problem could be overcome in the short term by using turning circles and backtracking the runway with a possible relocation of the road (Winters Lane) in the future; that might not be easily achieved as it would mean intruding onto part of a golf course.
In 2010 Thomson MD Chris Browne announced that BRS would be one of the airports from which the 787 would operate.
Thomson will use 787 to offer new destinations - www.travelweekly.co.uk
At the beginning of 2013 the airport applied to the local authority for a non-material amendment to its outline planning consents to enable,
inter alia, the gate lounge within the central walkway now currently under construction to be widened slightly. The specific reason given was that the Boeing 787 was likely to be configured to hold more passengers than was contemplated when the original plans were submitted (from 260 passengers to between 290 and 310 passengers).
Last year Thomson announced that their weekly summer services to Sanford and Cancun would not operate in summer 2014. I'm not aware of any definitive reason being given but the former First Choice 258-seat Boeing 767s that operated the routes will not be available after mid summer this year, but whether that is the reason or whether commercial factors played a part may be something that is sensitive to the airline.
Various rumours come and go. One is that the wing overhang problem has been overcome. I have no way of verifying this as I have no technical expertise.
It seems that the airport still expects 787 operations at some point - I read that the A 350 may not be viable but again I don't know.
If the 787 and 350 will not be able to use the ski jump runway, as one pilot in this thread recently described it, the potential loss of a wide-bodied Middle East scheduled route in the future is more damaging in my view to the airport and to the local economy than any inability to operate some long haul holiday charter flights.
There are alternatives though, one being a Turkish service using narrow-bodied aircraft to its hub at Istanbul.