Quote: "Does any other country in Europe have quite so many airports with long haul as we do? Look at Emirates, they serve GLA, NCL, MAN, BHX, LHR and LGW in the UK and DUB across the sea, that's SEVEN airports in the market. This does not happen in any other European country. (They only serve ~33 airports in Europe btw)"
DUB accross the sea is another country, but BFS isn't!
Don't forget BRS and BFS with transatlantic connections to EWR, LCY with transatlantic connections to JFK, ABZ with a link to GYD, and LBA with links to ISB and LHE. Limited longhaul, admittedly, but it deserves to be counted. Then there are several airports with longhaul charter/holiday flights to be considered as well.
As for the idea of "too many" airports in the UK, the "market" will decide. The UK is almost unique worldwide in having the majority of airports as completely privately-owned businesses.
Quote: "Yes, there are a long haul services from roughly the same number airports in France and Germany - may I point out that DUB does not count. France has at least 7 airports with long haul due to overseas departements and Germany has MUC, FRA, DUS, TXL/SXF (BER), HAM and STR with some sort of long haul service."
Long haul to "overseas departements" is not a good comparison. The word "departement" is French for "county", so the British equivelant are Antrim, Down, etc., the only difference is the distance.
Flights between ORY and the "departements outre-mer" (overseas counties) are domestic flights. They are very long domestic flights admittedly, but domestic flights nonetheless, in much the same way as DME/SVO/VKO-VVO in the Russian Federation.
Last edited by Fairdealfrank; 7th Jun 2012 at 20:47.