Quote: "BHX has a lot of spare capacity. It's catchment area is huge, and if they were to build HS2 it would be very easily reachable from the west side of London. If the UK had a joined up transport policy and was not Londoncentric, BHX could work as a major hub."
Londoncentric is not the reason in this case, although there is no doubt that UK is a very centralised country, generally speaking.
Commercial considerations are preventing BHX's expansion as a major hub, not government intervention, apart from APD of course, but that effects all UK's airports. Government intervention is concentrated on strangling LHR, by not allowing its expansion.
BHX does not work as a major hub because no airline can make enough money (or has the perception that it cannot make enough money) from either (a) setting up a hub there, or (b) running a long haul service to its own hub, with the exception of EK and transatlantic of course.
BHX has good short haul and transatlantic links, but apart from that very little longhaul. Once the runway is extended, if money is to be made, the carriers will be there (assuming bi-lateral rights, etc.). However, in any queue to establish non-LHR hubs, MAN is probably ahead.
Quote: "6.6 million sounds very high, in fact even 3.3m does. CAA stats show the West Midlands accounting for around 2.5% of Heathrow originating traffic (6.6m equates to almost 15%)."
Even if BHX becomes a major hub, there always be some "West Midlands" based pax using LHR, as it will always have a wider range of destinations.
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 6th Jun 2012 at 17:09.