If the Government do protect the regional airports links to Heathrow then I would expect a number of slots will be taken for these routes and the routes offered on a PSO basis and there would then be a competitive tender process where airlines bid for the PSO contracts, similar to what happens in Scotland and Ireland. Whether bmi would bid for any of these remains to be seen, but there are a few other airlines which I'm sure would be interested, such as Loganair, Flybe and Eastern.