I don't see why we have to prostitute ourselves to some faceless civil servant in Whitehall "supposedly" negotiating on behalf of UK interests.
I am interested in Manchester and the benefits to the NWest !
If Air China wish to operate to Manchester Edinburgh or for that matter even Birmingham WHAT is the problem ?
Well said bagso, in my experience the problem is not a London one pre se, more an Oxbridge problem. Some of the cleverest people can also be the most hopeless as they cannot see the wider picture and benefits. There are heaps of clever types running MOD Procurement and the Foreign Office and it's not often you can stand back and say "Wow that's working well." Much of the freedoms we enjoy were actually forced through at a European level, and I say that as a Eurosceptic.
Past excuses have been it would be cataclysmic for British interest if American launched MAN-ORD, Singapore were allowed MAN-SIN or even SABENA being permitted to continue MAN-NYC (nearly said JFK but this is old......). Even PIK lost KLM and SAS long haul to save BOAC who of course no longer serve long haul from Scotland, or Manchester. BA are big enough to take care of themselves on this one.
Politics runs on a five year cycle and has no institutional memory within transport I find, so there are genuinely posters on here who know more about MAN than some of our "civil service".