Skipness One Foxtrot
true, good post.
for UK originating PAX their airport of departure is pretty much based on location to where they live, flight schedule and price, but as you say people flying INTO the UK want LHR, yourself and someone else recently made an excellent comparison with OAK/SFO, Brits want SFO yet when. I used to work at the airport, locals living in and around San Fran all said to me OAK is so much better, backs up the argument .
LGW for example has always been a waiting room for LHR, and Bermuda II skewed the picture for many years.
EK slightly different as they are (were)?! Feeding vast numbers of UK PAX through a huge hub
LGW, STN, LTN etc all serve decent catchment areas and vast majority of those Brits don’t care which they fly from as long as it’s near home and a good price/flight time but when it comes to people looking to fly to London, different story and also in someways because getting LHR slots is so hard it almost makes it more of a desire for an airline