Fair enough, I see where you are comming from now.
The point Im trying to make is, Whilst its not in the regions, such a set up still exsists at LGW, as all of LGW's long haul routes are leisure orientated and rely quite a lot on BA holidays.
At a time when they are about to create 'mixed fleet', maybe the time is now?
They have a crew base at MAN, the B772 could be rotated at MCO (like VS does), and with BA holiday/Kuoni, the venture wouldnt be soley relient on feed or point to point airfare only sales.
BA could, even utilise their BE codeshares to feed MAN from those points served by BE with the BA codeshare. There is also still the terraces lounge to be put to good use. Basically, the infrastructure is there, it just needs the commitment now.
And with that, I dont think its a mad idea. Im also not stating 20-30 aircraft should be based at MAN, just 1 or 2. BA could easily replicate at MAN what VS do, and if its just the morning MAN-LGW shuttle that feeds the LGW long hauls, it sounds like it wouldnt impact on LGW ops too much.
Then again, the above will always just be a dream
