"if virgin get their mitts on BMI, then the first thing Richard Branson will do is sell off regional as it's in direct competition with his choo-choo trains."
Surely the same would apply to baby? A fair bit of regional's traffic competes with the ECML (LBA etc), whereas baby's BHX to Scotland routes have to be a far more serious challenge to Virgin, and baby must push more domestic volume than regional.