As for BA, they ceased to be of any relevance some years ago to the majority of the UK as they were unable to grasp any ideas of how to operate out of the regions profitably.
Ringwayman I enjoy your posts as you're a good read but I think that's a little off. BA still offer the regions access to their world hub in exactly the same way they have done for year. The only recent losses were BFS with JER, IOM(ex Manx) and INV (ex Dan Air and ex BA going back) moving to LGW. ABZ, EDI, GLA, NCL, MAN still enjoy good access to LHR and BA's services across the globe. Scotland and the North of England are still important to the bottom line. What you mean is that they refuse to split long haul within the UK and they closed the European hubs at BHX and MAN when the competion arrived with a fraction of the costs and the public voted with their feet. Fewer numbers, smaller aircraft, even fewer numbers, no case for capital investment etc etc. It wasn't worth the candle for two reasons.
1) People and businesses were voting with their feet when the locos arrived
2) BA were utterly useless at making money outside of LHR. Compare Speedbird Manchester, self handling, the highest paid cabin crew in the country and then pitch them up against a new generation of upstarts with a fraction of that. It took BA until now to face down BASSA.
MAN made a very nice profit off the JFK and the ISB when it operated through there, I even believe the short-lived LAX was profitable, going back even further, the YYZ and HKG were as well.....
Given that commercially sensitive information like this is not widely disseminated on a route by route basis is what you "know" is a "rumour" not a commercially verifiable fact? Working in business can blow your mind at the levels of complexity sometimes needed to make money. What can be on the face of it a money maker can be losing cash when you look deeper into it.
Given MAN-LAX was five a week and launched in the opposition of LHR who had other plans for a B767 it's a wonder it lasted as long.
The best example of BA's inability to get it right can be the LHR-BFS shuttle. Always busy, loads of connections but the internal accounting and allocation of revenue meant that it somehow managed to lose money. Same with the British Regional J41 fleet, Friday afternoon independent operator making money, Monday morning BA subsidiary losing money.
The ongoing hate affair between some Manchester posters and BA is like a soap opera. Many of the people who screwed MAN over in the BA / BOAC days are gone, some are even dead now ! BA couldn't make MAN work even with slashing the pay of regional staff they were still oddly uncompetitive. The future of MAN long haul is Emirates with staff on market rates and new shiny big aircraft. Let BA be the Heathrow hub + spoke that it needs to be to survive and *move on*. As a BA supporter, they're London Airways now, that's what they chose to be to survive. With ATI and the AA / BA / IB tie up they might have a long term future up against the might of the STAR ALLIANCE. What Manchester needs is exactly what touched down on 1-Sep to much acclaim. I don't demonise BA and take it personally, in the 21st century nor should you. I could have a poke at Emirates starting with a blank sheet and a low cost base and treating *some* of it's staff in a way that 95% of us cossetted Europeans would find reprehensible but I don't hero worship capitalist businesses. Now that would be odd!
Having said that I will be waving a camera towards Stand 12 at the weekend
and just to mess with your heads, unlike last week and BA I'll be venturing North on Derby Airways I believe.....