Certainly Skipness I'm not disagreeing with what you said, all I'm saying is that there is little opportunity outside of the South East for legacy carriers, I wasn't suggesting that Long Haul Locos would be an obvious success. What I was trying to get at was: why are some people at Manchester and other areas complaining about losing traditional carriers when clearly those are not what the market desire, the airport makes money out of Low cost flights doesn't it? Don't they pay the same fees?
I do firmly believe though that if it was run well a low fares long haul airline could work in the right economic climate so long as it didn't compromise too much on service. Regular business travellers are not stupid, they won't refuse to use an airline just because it has been labelled "low cost" by industry critics (as long as a good level of service is maintained by the airline in question). Just look at Jet2, there are many companies in Yorkshire with which I have had dealings that have no problem using Jet2 for business travel needs short haul.