Unfortunately the statistics you mention are very one dimensional and don't tell the full story. Can you imagine BA, whose accountants will always say that they will always make more out of an aircraft based at LHR than in the provinces building up the incredible network the UK now has of regional point to point domestics and to secondart and tertiary points in Europe? Absolutely no chance. They had tremendous opportunities out of BHX, MAN, EDI and GLA for decades and what did they do with them? The only real creativity has come from their excellent franchises , who I should have mentioned in the original posting.On long haul, who has built up the still relatively small number of services ex the UK? BA ? No, thanks to the newcomers who even if foreign based (eg the Gulf based carriers), UK pilots now have a range of possible employers, lifestyles,aircraft types and bases undreamed of 15 years ago and are no longer faced with largely monopoly scheduled carriers or the orginal charters. They now have an excellent choice of the sort of UK company they want to work for, the lifestyle , location etc. and the sandpit long haul newcomers have added to the variety.