Even 30 years ago we were running out of runways. Come tea time it became a very difficult to book diversion airfields. If you didn't book Marham by 1700 they would stack.
We could not get two sqns out of 3 to nightfly on the same night. We often held Manchester with the assumption, use it once and they would say never again. At least today civil airfields might be happy with the landing fees.