Skipness
Being based in Malta, you must know that all you are going to get is an old B737-400 from LGW.
An interesting point of view, however one that apparently misses the 3-5 rotations between Malta and LHR/LGW, flown by Air Malta with a very new Airbus fleet (with in flight feature films), good service and keen pricing in the premium cabin or the loco offerings from easy and the Ryans on new Airbus or 738s.
Or for connections, Air Malta and Lufthansa/Swiss/Austrian in cooperation going north or Emirates to the east. And that is not even considering Alitalia and Egyptair, who are not my first choices.
BA could withdraw from Malta and the world would hardly end. Lord Bracken is right, the GB franchise was an excellent experience.
The reason ZRH is more efficient is partly becasue of the Swiss nation themselves and partly because it handles a mere fraction of the traffic and can afford to be. Swiss premium may be much better but Swissair ( for it is they that they were born from ) was legendary for service and look at 1) Only the extremely well off could afford to fly frequently and 2) They went bust.
Frankly, that is a load of cobblers. Zurich airport works efficiently because it is well managed and Swissair went bust because they got things badly wrong with their business model - remember Sabena? Swiss International (who, IMHO, are not as classy as Swissair were), arose from Crossair, who in effect reversed into the rump of what was left.
If you were indeed a consultant on UK transport then you'll be aware as to why moving to a farm in Essex was never really an option for anyone working where the market was.....which was the M4 corridor, the Thames Valley and WEST London.
I was a consultant working for a certain big airline at LHR.
By the way, which part of 'fast rail links' did you have trouble understanding? With the right train service, the M4 corridor would be about 45 minutes from Stansted. And considerably quicker for the City of London, which was a major player for the last 20 years, or so. BA used to lfy a lot of merchant bankers in premium class and very few worked wets of London.
I can only assume you don't use CDG much as it is as much a dysfunctional nightmare as LHR, except that with LHR's T5 and East development, LHR is improving!! CDG is a joke in transit.
I have used it a lot. Note that I did not present it as a model of excellence, merely commented that the French took a strategic view and made a big decision, whereas the Brits have tinkered around and compromised.