Glad to entertain you all! The point I was trying to make was that logically LTN was never in the running, plenty of passion, but realistically it is a reasonable regional Airport. I agree that the BAA had 'persuasion' that LTN did not have, eg buying up local housing at inflated prices and then renting them to their own staff, but . . . LTN is not designed to operate to a high frequency, there would be several thousand tonnes of earth required to even provide a parallel taxiway, let alone RET's and STN has??!! because it is flat with a huge area that it could expand to. I have worked at both Airports and know their particular qualities . . . have you??