It always amused me, leafing through the holiday brochures years ago, seeing which airlines were doing what routes. Invariably the likes of Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester had their flights operated by the in-house airline - Britannia, Air Europe, Orion and so on. The lesser airports such as Leeds Bradford and Aberdeen got the likes of Spanair and Spantax. I know this was because the UK airlines didn't always have bases at these airports so had to make do with the Spanairs of the world. I can't speak from experience but I wonder if their passengers were getting a raw deal compared with, say, the Manchester passengers ? As an aircraft dispatcher a few years ago, I encountered several stroppy Spanish cabin crew and was happy not to be flying with them. Latin spirit and all that.