Well Newquay not far from Gatwick in a jet, and if we can we might be able to push the other operator off the route and there might be more slots available at Gatwick for us to snap up
Very much doubt that this enters the thinking. If you knew the BA operation at Gatwick, you would know that they have been down-sizing for several years now - down from 53 short-haul aircraft (at the time of the BA/CityFlyer integration - 34 x 737s and 19 x RJ100/ATR72s) down to 31 operational 737s today. This has reduced BA's percentage of slots at LGW from +40% down to less than 30% and those slots have largely been taken up by easyJet. BA has no shortage of slots at LGW and if it had, it would hardly have been helping airlines like Malev to obtain peak-hour LGW slots. It certainly doesn't need the Air Southwest slots or, moreover, for those slots to go to any of BA's competitors like easyJet.
It's fascinating that everyone still thinks there must be an ulterior motive behind BA's moves despite the numbers in my earlier posting.