FRatSTN
I really think EMA is in need of some more city/business like routes. They have BHD, EDI and GLA well covered but there's no service to CDG now other than four midday flights a week by LS and AMS and DUB are now only once daily.
You are so right. East Midlands business is virtually unserved by EMA. It's disappointing that the only business orientated non UK and Ireland services are Amsterdam and Brussels. The latter isn't the best European hub airport in terms of the spread of onward connections and to work properly as a hub AMS needs to be minimum 2 x daily.
I fear that the airport is in reality squeezed by BHX, where the major carriers are already well ensconced and probably wouldn't get any benefit from diluting the market between BHX and EMA. You only have to look at how long KLM lasted at LPL to see the effect in action.
Apart from for putting bums on seats, I really can't see a great benefit in expansion by Ryanair. The greater their dominance, the greater their demands for reduced prices and this would impact on the airport's profitability - a hole that would probably be filled by more rip-off charges levied against passengers and meeters and greeters.