When you said "certain regional airports" I assumed you didn't mean the fifteen or so departures each YEAR from Glasgow so you were referring to Manchester. MAN is a great airport and still has an excellent route structure. I am not a LHR fan boy, I just despair of the ability we have in the UK to procrastinate and avoid big decisions. We let our aircraft building and assembly go abroad. I suspect that LHR's usefullness will go the same way.