As a matter of interest, don't cargo a/c have slides
Some like the A300 do, others - the 757 for instance dont. Just depends on the mod. The advantage of slides is large numbers of people can quickly get down them. Freighters are only have a few seats and for the smaller ones it is practical to put "descent assistance" think death slide meets car seat belt meets parachute trainer - grab one and step out the door.
think that LUT's work is to a similar timescale:
Not last week: I operated into STN at about 3z and out again 4 ish its just shorter than normal, Luton is deffo closed nights and thus there is always a chance it wont re-open on time or that when it does the ILS is U/S or similar. So sensible planning would use somewhere else as an alternate, EMA which is a TNT gateway and was probably their "commercial" alternate was giving visibility of less than a couple of KM so Brum is the obvious choice. Though from a disruption point of view Gatwick might be better as they could have still operated from their spare runway/taxiway while the 737 was recovered. Perhaps there is an argument for a similar facility in the midlands.