Im sure BA could operate a fleet of 3 to 4 long haul jets out of Manchester to popular long haul destinations but then they are taking pax away from there precious slots at Heathrow by not interlining them through the shuttle service.

Heahtrow slots are BAs primary concern. If the volume of pax drops and this has a knock-on effect of services cancelling then they will loose the slots, simple.

To encourage this can I give an example. When BA flew a regional serivce from MAN I checked out tickets from MAN to Vienna. Direct from MAN was £80 more exensive than going via Heathrow, nomatter what combination of flights I chose.

From a profit point BA can make more money flying a 767 from LHR to JFK than they could for example by putting on an afternoon MAN to JFK service.

As an enthusiast to visits MAN 5 or 6 times per year one of its more refreshing points is that no one airline dominates. Plenty of variety in colours and aircraft. i also have had the displeasure of flying Ba a dozen or so times so im pleased to have a variety or airlines to choose from ex MAN as I never had a good flight with BA. On one flight I took from LHR-GLA-BEB my 757 was still on the ground at LHR when I was suppoed to be arriving in GLA. Once airborne I asked a member of the cabin crew about the connecting flight. Despite booking the official BA timetabled connecting flight the Stewardess snapped back at me ‘Everyone knows this flight runs late, you should of caught an earlier shuttle’!

Lets not forget the dirty tricks BA used to pull at MAN. I remember when the Iron curtain fell, CSA and LOT were the first Eastern Bock airlines to announce regular scheduled flights to MAN. They announced with some fanfare after market research their respective twice weekly schedules. One month later BA had slots booked on the same days at the same frequency but departing and arriving back 5 mins earlier.

Im not sad at the demise of BA from the regions. Hell if a former BAophile like Jeremy Clarkson can drop them for ‘Beard-Wierd Airways’ (despite hating Branson) then im sure everyone can find a better product from the regions than that that BA provided. Cant wait for my LH MAN-MUC later in the year.

Steve