The points I make below are not simply to generate discussion for the sake of it but are put in a genuine belief. My principal question relates to the airport owners' position as the rest of this post will show. There may well be those who take a contrary view to mine and, if so, I'd be interested in the reasons.
BRS relies on footfall though the airport to generate much of its revenue via ancillary streams such as car parking and retail, with only around 40% coming from aeronautical revenue. Until the pandemic it's been a very profitable airport for its owners who have not held back on serious infrastructure expansion investment and want to continue to do so if the planning authorities allow.
So would the BRS owners be prepared to splash out on incentives to attract a single-daily transatlantic route, for the summer season only at that, when some priming up their existing customer airlines' pumps such as easyJet or Ryanair would likely bring in many more passengers on new or increased-frequency short-haul routes than, say, a daily New York route? What would be in the latter for the airport owners if they could generate more footfall through additional short-haul traffic?
Like others I would be very surprised if BRS was in with a chance anyway, not least because Heathrow is only 100 miles away from Bristol along the motorway and airlines know that many West Country travellers regard it as their 'local' long-haul airport and use it in considerable numbers.