Was the (BA) LHR - LBA a slot a sitter? 100% NO. The slots at Heathrow were just as valuable 5 years ago when the Yeadon service first operated. Has the route failed to attract enough patrons - 100% YES. It was as predictable as day follows night! Simple!- it goes the same way as Cork, Copenhagen, Brussels, Glasgow, Madrid, Toulouse, Exeter, Milan, Islamabad, Belfast Aldergrove etc etc etc. It is the same reason why Paris has reduced from double daily to less than a flight a day. The same reason why AMS continues to reduce. Route after route after route not being able to attract enough passengers/yield.
Stop blaming BA, EasyJet, Vueling, SAS, PIA, Loganair etc etc etc who apparently, according to local spotters, don't know what they are doing. "When will they realise the potential?" - they say! They know the potential - that's why they leave (like Bridgepoint)
LBA is in completely the WRONG LOCATION to tap the potential gigantic Yorkshire population catchment. It's got zero to do with Brexit! Do not be misled. If 1.5 million South Yorkshire people would much much rather travel further to EMA or MAN rather than a much shorter distance of Yorkshire's main airport on a hill in a housing estate then that airport is catastrophically failing in serving Yorkshire! Those 1.5 million people are CRITICALLY needed if a shuttle to Heathrow is to work. Hence it does not work! Reduction.
Bridgepoint should be congratulated for doing everything they possibly could to induce growth. I do not expect the new management to do the same [as it costs an awful lot of money]. Nobody pours money down the drain. LBA is a drain.
I am Yeadon Yeadon Yeadon through and through - but as a civil airport it is a shambolic, scandalous squandering disgrace that has cost Yorkshire and the North East of England Billions of Pounds and exported that wealth, jobs, investment, tourism directly West of the Pennines where the airport is correctly located and connected.