Skipness, I agree with your comments, BA had fairly substantial ops at MAN with good facilities, similarly at BHX with the purpose built Eurohub, designed to facilitate transfer traffic. I have experience of the latter mainly, but during 1990's through to BACON days this was quite effective. I always thought that BA was committed to both MAN and BHX. In fact to be fair they did invest in equipment, I remember the 1-11's being replaced by the 737's and then these were replaced with new A319's. These were BA's first order for the A320 family and the first deliveries were placed at BHX followed by MAN not LHR. Although looking at the present, whilst both MAN ad BHX facilitated BA very well, I think MAN came out of the post BA period better than BHX, who put too many eggs in one basket. However it does seem that BA's lack of regional presence has helped KLM/AIR FRANCE/LUFTHANSA etc. to grow their UK market share.