Bryan - many take the contrary view that the long-term future of the MAN services is dependant upon bmi gaining access to LHR. Remember, "being busy" is no indicator of profitability per se and the general feeling is that the returns from running a two-ship operation in a low-yield market are not that great. LHR services will mean that the fixed costs of the transatlantic operation will be absorbed across a broader income base and the MAN operation will be more cost-efficient as a result.
Remember also that Bishop didn't set up the transatlantic operation to feed inter-lining pax into UA hubs in ORD and IAD out of MAN. His 'dream' is to compete with BA for the lucrative front-end passengers out of LHR. If he can't get the latter, I suspect there won't be much appetite to persist with the former.
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