I think that it is time that academic research was focused in the perceived economic benefits that the airport confers on the region.
The New Year reality that Aer Lingus will be operating cheap flights from Aldergrove to Heathrow will pose a considerable challenge to the local airport's future and Ryanair will be the first to withdraw the Derry/Stanstead service if the figures don't stack up. It is as simple as that.
What is not in doubt is the economic contribution that the airport makes to cities such as London, Dublin and Liverpool. The Ryanair flight to London Stanstead is the clearest manifestation of the links between London and Derry.
I used the facility a few weeks ago on Saturday morning. The first sight that greeted me at the airport was a large group of (well at least six) Chelsea supporters heading off to Stamford Bridge seeking life after José. I didn't actually believe that there were as many Chelsea fans in the North West!
They were well and truly outnumbered by the army of female shoppers seeking the retail therapy afforded by Sloane Square, Selfridges and the Mecca of Oxford Street.
This full complement of intrepid band of explorers seemed to know London far better than they know Derry and many of their accents betrayed a disdain for the provincial facilities and outlets of the North West and they were truly thankful that Ryanair is maintaining links with the 'mainland'.
It is quite amusing to compare the local casting of Ryanair with that emanating from the mainland itself. One English commentator has coined the phrase 'immigrants for the age of Ryanair' to describe the ease with which Eastern European immigrants flood into Britain. This issue has been given an added boost by the widely-reported comments of a Tory hopeful, Nigel Hasiltow, who praised Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech of the late 1960s, in which the controversial politician foretold of dire consequences of unchecked immigration.
We have an interesting situation developing in that our new political nationalist elite is intent on severing all links with London at a time when our newly-enriched middle class is eager to embrace them.
The immigration issue should be viewed in a wider context than simply the UK and a cursory reading of the European press over the weekend would have highlighted this reality. The Italian press has been reporting the fallout from the murder of Giovanna Reggiani, the wife of an Italian naval officer. The woman was murdered on the outskirts of Rome and the authorities have charged a Romanian immigrant with her murder. The popular reaction has been both swift and severe with numerous attacks on Romanian immigrants and moves by the authorities to clear the numerous Roma sites that have sprung up in many Italian cities, just as we recently saw in Dublin.
I digress from my tale of the Derry exodus to London and other mainland cities.
In Bodenstown churchyard, Wolfe Tone must surely be turning in his grave as he is forced to a revisionist view of history. Tone went to his grave believing that the connection with England was the source of all our troubles and his legacy has been to influence generations of misguided Irishmen to bomb and kill innocent English people.
Could Tone really endorse the cold blooded killings in 1993 in Warrington of youngsters like Jonathan Ball and Timothy Parry by the Provisional IRA any more than the pub bombings in Birmingham and Guildford two decades earlier? These were blights on the real and historic relationship of Ireland and Britain.
At least, we appear to have reverted to a stable and peaceful relationship with Britain, a land that was a welcoming host to countless generations of Irish immigrants. Republicans themselves should remember that Wolfe Tone was, at one time in his political career, eager to suggest to the British how best they could administer their colonies. After all, Tone had been spent student days in London and been seduced by that fine capital much in the same way as modern day shoppers are by the delights of Harrods.