With regard to Heathrow slots ... over on the Virgin thread this was posted;
bmi is the second largest slot holder at LHR, by a long way, holding more than 1 in 10 slots at the airport. Virgin is 6th largest:
Out of 468,120 (in 2005):
1st BA 192,378
2nd BD 54,500
3rd LH 20,978
4th EI 14,841
5th SK 14,049
6th VS 12,571
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthr...=249785&page=4
I'd guess that most major airlines would like to operate a hub of some fashion from LHR, whether EI can is another matter, plus they'd have to convince 2 share holder with almost 50% of the company between them who I'd assume are "hostile" to the idea (Irish Government and Ryanair).
JAS