vectisman
You’re right. I’m one of them. I live just a few miles from Gatwick and wouldn’t consider Heathrow unless for long haul.
I usually fly BA where I can, have a stupid amount of avios but still the convenience of flying from Gatwick outweighs ‘brand loyalty’. I would always pay that bit more to fly BA rather than a LOCO. Maybe silly, but not everyone wants bargain basement prices and the scrum that comes with it.
recently went away where I could have used avios from LHR but instead switched airlines to fly from LGW. That’s just me but how many others are there that are prepared to do the same? BA will obviously know more about this than me but for them to claim they were unprofitable is surely a bit disingenuous.