It will only get worse if the bmi deal goes through without a significant slot surrender to Virgin. I can see them stagnating out of Heathrow. Perhaps they'll look more to the regions for expansion purposes in the future & subsequently command time could come down.
I'm curious, what makes you think any slots should be
surrendered to Virgin?
With regard to the regions, Beardy has moaned about BA's alleged monoply on certain Scottish routes out of LHR. Why isn't Virgin operating flights to Scotland, to improve the situation? Probably because Virgin is financially on the bones of it's arse and doesn't have the cash to run it's current operation, never mind new routes.
Virgin's business model has been looked at by potential buyers/partners and all of them have walked away - Singapore
still cannot get rid of its 49% share. Virgin Atlantic is one very sick beastie.