Conversely, Ryanair coming in and if it goes well expanding would be a counterpoint to Jet2 who were themselves effectively turning LBA into a one-airline airport.
This will always be a conundrum for airport operators.
An airline like Jet2 turns up at an airport like LBA and transforms the place. For the most part it is popular with punters and operates regular scheduled services never previously enjoyed at the airport.
Other airports have similar stories with easyJet or Flybe, for example.
It' great for the airport and its punters but there is a danger that if the golden egg airline is suddenly no more, because it has gone bust or decided to move elsewhere, the airport might be just up the road from Queer Street.
So a much needed second significant presence arrives in the form of an aggressive airline like Ryanair. It's fine so long as the routes don't overlap with the incumbent but some will because they are inherently popular and potentially lucrative.
There is then the danger that the presumably long term and stable ralationship between LBA and Jet2 might suffer BUT the airport will have two major players instead of one, albeit the original major may be slightly less major at the airport than it once was.
This scenario is being played out at other airports such as Liverpool and Bristol, both big provincial easyJet bases but in recent years infiltrated more and more by Ryanair.
Exeter Airport, much smaller than LBA it is true, is a one airline airport of mega proportions. Apart from a once a day Twin Otter from Scilly Skybus its only scheduled airline is Flybe.
Flybe exercises such control over that airport that it regularly weighs in with its views regarding the operation of Exeter.
For example, It didn't like the original preferred bidder when the council put up EXT for sale and said so publicly and threw a wobbly when the airport fire brigade threatened strike action.
On both occasions it made public statements about reducing services or even pulling out altogether. In the past 18 months EXT has suffered horrendous drops in passenger numbers because Flybe has axed both routes and rotations. Because they have no other scheduled airline EXT can do nothing about it.
I think that a second significant based player is very important to an airport even if it is someone like Ryanair and the original based airline has its nose put out of joint. To me it's the lesser evil to the situation at a place like Exeter that is effectively in thrall to its only based scheduled airline.