Hi Tristar500 , I-d like to challenge a few of yr "facts"...
1/Don-t think GLA/JFK ever made a profit , in fact I think the losses were a high ratio of the revenue earned.
2/Cargo didn-t make a mega profit.
Capacity on a LHL 757 is fairly limited.
Cargo yields are usually very low....cargo doesn-t complain if it gets trucked around so many Shippers will use whichever route offers ths lowest rates and are happy to truck hundreds of miles before and after the flight if the rates are keen e,g they will fly cargo to Detroit or Chicgo if thats where the lowest rates are and truck back to the East Coast.
Not up to date with currernt MKT rates but in the past a full belly hold
of 20tonnes wasn-t worth a lot more than 6 or 7 business class psgrs.
3/As a couple of others have already commented the US carriers are
not selling to point to point Mkt from the UK regions ..they are selling GLA-USA , BHX-USA ,MAN-USA vis their respective Hubs...
DL @ ATL , CO @ EWR ,US @ PHL ,AA @ ORD.
I would bet a large proportion os psgrs traveling to ATL or EWR from the regions are actually going to ORLANDO/TAMPA/LAS Vegas/Los Angerles/San Franciso....these are strong volume and very low yield journeys from UK regions. The US carriers basically give away the DOM sector to get the longhaul business and if the fares are prorated and properly allocated don-t make much money.
BA uses LHR as the US carriers use their hubs and I don-t see the diff
travelling GLA to US via LHR instead of ATL or ORD and don-t tell me transiting ORDS or ATL is a whole lot easier than LHR and LHR will get a lot better when T5 brings services into one terminal.
MAN/JFK is probably the biggest PT 2 PT City pair TO US outside of LON and BA operate thius because it has some hope of making money.
4/As part of their Bankruptcy Emergence plans many of these carriers
are reducing their exposure to LOCO Domestically they are shifting capacity ( 757/767 ) to Intl service....they are losing so much domestically that even a contribution to overheads from an Intl service is better.
5/BA has excellent Premium products ...years ahead of the American carriers and slots are hard to come by at LHR so it won-t be easy for a new entrant @ LHR to compete ...BA will have bifg frequency advantage on key routes such as LHR/JFK....US recently pulled LHR/JFK as they couldn-t compete either product or frequency wise and as JFK isn-t one of their DOM hubs they couldn-t bolster with connecting traffic.
I am sure BA will be delighted to op LHL fm the regions if and when it is profitable to do so !!