@Skipness
I'm not suggesting trying to force the market, which I agree is completely impractical (and impossible!) but it just surprises me that, with the unprecedented capacity constraints at LHR as they currently are, that there has not been some sort of 'coalition of the willing' (apologies for the wording!) seriously proposing LGW as an alternative, or even LGW themselves doing more to lobby for it. I will admit, however, that my knowledge of previous experiments is far from exhaustive and I am certainly no expert on the matter!
Could be that they are all holding out and waiting for runway 3 to be agreed I suppose?!
@WHBM
I agree with you, and whilst it would be nice for Manchester or Brum to become a 'secondary hub' in a similar vein to Munich, there just isnt the demand there currently.
Perhaps if the Government were serious about closing this north/south divide or realigning the economy then one of those airports could eventually benefit from the situation, but that would require joined up thinking across Government departments which, when they can't even join up transport policy in one department, seems like wishful thinking to me!