It's just the absolute abandonment of anything regional by the supposed flag carrier.
You mean long haul don't you. It always comes back to the heavies. No one is shouting for the return of Brymon or British Regional I notice.
Imagine BA introduced tomorrow :
MAN-SIN on which SQ are retrenching and flying as a SIN-MUC tag on.
MAN-BOM into low yield India which even struggles at LHR.
MAN-DEL see above.
MAN-ICN
MAN-MIA
The last one *might* work if code shared with AA but is probably better suited to AA who have tried and failed here before. I get your point, really I do but put your hand on your heart and tell me how many of the above would be in profit in three years.
The whole UK economy is horribly skewed towards the home counties and the city within the M25. It's far from ideal but the UK isn't Germany and the analogy whilst initally appealing fails on further investigation alas. I see no way for BA to make these routes pay. Given the continued success of the unstoppable Emirates machine, you may see less long haul growth simply because the numbers stack up better going via DXB in the A380.