Amelia has hit the nail squarely on the head with a very well presented post and as anyone who has lived in the North, particularly the NW will be aware that he/she speaks the truth even going back to the railway days when Strabane and Derry were major border rail hubs the lack of government investment is well documented.
Having said that I suspect that as long as Derry council owns the airport it will be a drain on the rate payers of Derry. On the other hand with BFS and BHD only up the road I fail to see how a private operator could make it viable.
The question now is of course is how long will it take before the airport is closed/sold due to pressure from the rate payers.
Not that I think for one minute that if the airport were sold that the rates would reduce.
One good aspect from an aviation perspective anyway is that no one will buy the airport with a view to building as evidenced with Ballykelly which has attracted little or no attention from the construction industry.