You can keep on with "what if's" and "what might have been" until the cows come home. What if Laker hadn't been allowed to fly from Gatwick and was forced to fly from Stansted in 1977 as originally there? What if Virgin hadn't started at Gatwick but had stuck with Highland Express' base at STN? What if Norwegian short-haul hadn't been able to access Gatwick? None of it is relevant. The fact is that the shape of the market today is determined by the fact that all of those things did happen. Speculating on alternatives is a pretty futile pastime.