This is about UK and the southeast runway capacity in particular and that’s with what the Davies report was tasked with identifying .
It’s not and never has been about creating a Mega Hub and Spoke airport for one alliance or another !
Sorry but that statement is just wrong.
LHR expansion and the hub idea was being approved long before the whole 'new runway anywhere in the South East' red herring was being debated. That came from a political backdown in the face of voters under the flightpath.
The reasons for expansion at Gatwick are completely separate to the reasons for expanding LHR and it is not just a case of deciding where to put a new runway in the SE. When BAA decided to expand LHR they owned LGW also.
People don't seem to be able to differentiate between the airport business and the airlines. If a 787 can be filled on a route from Doncaster to Boston then an airline will do it regardless of what is going on at Heathrow.
A third runway will not take away the profitable point to point routes from the regions. It would probably take some LH traffic from the likes of MAN who have for a long time enjoyed too large a catchment area but that's a good thing for those fed up with an early morning trek over the M62.