Skipness - I can think of 3 possible arguments
1 - Unless a megahub is designed as a megahub (think of any of the airports opened in Asia over the last 10 years serving 50+ million pax) it will likely have grown by evolution and thus may struggle to put a very large number of movements through one place. An airline that is the dominant carrier for a very large city may end up being forced to split its operation just to retain the market. Examples - BA at LCY or transavia(KLM's subsidiary) at Rotterdam
2 - Heathrow has higher landing fees and other direct and indirect costs of operation (eg delays). O&D leisure passengers may be more price sensitive and not always accept the higher fare arising from the increased costs.
3 - There's a lot of wealthy people living in Sussex, east Surrey and Kent who are quite happy to fly to/from Gatwick to the beach with their families and don't want the cost+time of going to Heathrow. Either BA leaves this market to Easyjet or it operates from Gatwick
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 7th Jul 2013 at 12:10.