The commercial reality is that the Government is now considering the use of PSO (Public Service Obligation) for regional links to LHR. This is a subsidy and, if it comes to pass, means the cost of connecting the regions to LHR is substantively borne by the UK taxpayer.
Fair point, but when LGW changed their charging policy a while back, they killed flybe’s routes to INV, GCI, JER, BHD and NQY overnight. EZY was the winner but business connectivity was lost as frequency was lost, NQY-LGW was reprieved only because HMG approved a sunsidy. Now that subsidy would generate a lot more inbound traffic if it was NQY-LHR instead, due to many more connections at Hounslow Intl.
Public and private sector are interconnected more than we admit. There would be no railway without subsidy yet we see the benefit in getting us from A to B.