The world is changing faster than the government, the airlines or anyone else involved in aviation strategy can plan.
Too much has been invested in hubs, supposedly serving the entire country. Low cost airlines are prospering not only because they're cost effective, but because they tend to fly from where the people live to where they want to go to.
My family live in southern Scotland, a day's journey from Heathrow. Increasingly they choose to travel to places they can reach from Edinburgh, Newcastle or Glasgow. For long distance, Amsterdam and Dublin are easier to reach than Heathrow, and you don't get ripped off in quite the same way.
The majority of the UK population live nowhere near the UK's three main airports. Is it possible that dinosaur airports will go the way of dinosaur airlines?