3B. yep, and it is crap, and it is not good at all, but it is reality. There are centres of excellence in GA - Dunkeswell, Compton Abbas, Sherburn, etc, but they are GA centres, not Council/Big Business/Lets make a few quid operators, running larger than life and reality, real estate airports.
We have the bizarre set up in Scotland where a troupe of Private Operators have failed miserably with Prestwick. Even paying Ryanair to base a few 737's there, still could not make it work. Result, in a politically motivated move, the Scottish Government buy it for £1.00. The fact that it will require a massive subsidy to keep it running, is frankly financial nonsense. Root cause - no people, no customers, no business. The odd bit of freight, but that can easily be moved to Glasgow, or Edinburgh. Even Ryanair look like a lost cause, with routes opening at Glasgow and EDI.
Nope, the system is quite broken, and I do not see it being fixed any-time soon. Perhaps a last minute white knight will step up for Blackpool, but they better have lots of free cash...