Yet most airlines consistently choose LBA over other airports in the region, so the poor weather record some seem intent on holding onto is null and void.
The runway doesn't need extending as there isn't the demand to do so, simply because MAN swallows up most of the North. The 'massive' Yorkshire and Humber catchment area isn't actually that massive, it generates less than 10 million air passengers per year. Those are already catered for at neighbouring airports, and the leakage to bigger airports will never be plugged, even with a modern, well equipped purpose built facility. Politically that would never happen anyway, wity the Leeds City Region being well within a 40 mile radius of DSA.
What Bridgepoint have released is a realistic appraisal of where the airport is heading. Should demand require further expansion then it will happen. There is no conspiracy, just realistic expectations for growth over the coming few years.