To be honest I doubt anyone will agree with me, but I think more Star Alliance presence at Newcastle would help out - regular travelers could at least have the option of using one alliance, one stop east and west to most destinations, where traveling with existing carriers may require 2 or more stops
If we had a link to Frankfurt, or perhaps Zurich, it would allow people to use Star alliance travelling East and West on different business trips with LH/UA or LX/UA (as well as Brussels Airlines perhaps, most likely for Africa)
It would probably take time to build up the following, but every little helps doesn't it?
If this week's loads are representative of the whole season, I can't see why they wouldn't give us at least one last proper shot... I'm not ready to say goodbye yet