I assume, Airman, like me you have been in the industry for quite some time, in my case, 38 years come January 2009. Its odd, when you reflect back over those years, Cambrian Airlines, Northeast Airlines, BEA, when the then State owned airline had bases in ABZ, GLA, EDI,NCL,LPL,BHX and probably one or two more bases that elude me. So what do we have now? Flybe, doing exactly what BEA did some 30 + years ago, with bases in the very same locations, operating regional services and all power to thier elbow. Its called the Circle of Life. Not unlike the 1960's when retailing was focused upon city centres, then during the early, mid seventies, it was fashionable to develop out of town shopping centres, such as Milton Keynes, however, come the 80's, then b***er my old boots, the town planners thought they had better bring back retailing into the city centres, and of course during the 90's a swing back to out of town and here we are now, with huge developments back in the city centres, which is what I feel about regional aviation. I predict that over the next few years, what we shall witness, is Britsh Airways,( if its not bought by the Chinese or Gulf States) being a BOAC again, and the European bit been sold/closed down and let the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair compete in that market, with Flybe concentrating on their own successful business in the regions.