Bagso, re Beijing
"subject to alteration of Bi lateral agreement"!
If the market was as free as some on here affirm, and contend that is why airlines want to fly to LHR and not MAN, there wouldn't be a bi-lateral to alter.
Now here's a scenario: Chinese airline wants to fly to MAN but British airline demands extra flights to LHR in return. Nothing new there. British airline then complains there are no slots at LHR to operate the flights. Does it have to create slots for additional flights to China by reallocating existing slots and reducing frequency elsewhere, or does the lack of slots mean our DfT don't approve a new bi-lateral? In other words, where bi-laterals still exist, do capacity constraints at LHR facilitate direct flights to MAN, or in a strange way make it more difficult?