BA lost a fortune on the then Shuttle in it's final years. I believe the main issue was that because so many passengers were transitting onto long haul, it was long haul that was allocated the bulk of the ticket revenue. Hence massive loss for short haul ! This is similar to BMI and the Glasgow route quite recently, with every single STAR partner codesharing on the BD014 and the route still being knee deep in red ink at the end of the FY.
As things stand, BA get the connecting passengers from EI without sustaining a massive loss on their short haul network.
Skipness were the loses not at a time when British Midland brought online new A320/321's on the BFSLHR route and raised the game before the move to BHD?
My logic was based on BHD losing its LHR link therefore leaving no competition on the route. It would be interesting to see EI's response to any loss of BHD's LHR service because presumably they allocate some revenue to BA for connections. If BMI leave BHD, EI won't need to rely on connecting BA traffic to fill seats meaning less money lost to paying BA for the privildge of shuttling their long haul connectors. Interesting times ahead should BMI leave BHD.