Seafire
I absolutely agree with you, the debate currently should be about a fifth runway at Heathrow not a third, that is how far things have slipped relative to the competing European hubs.
I knew using the word connectivity could produce that reaction - what I mean is that connectivity over Heathrow has, and will, remain strong despite increasing direct services from the regions (which I fully support). This is because the growth in travel demand is "many to many" so at any point in time there will always be many marginal "route-pairings" which are not strong enough to support direct services other than from a single hub. That single hub will be the place with the highest locally originating demand - which will inevitably (ok nearly always) be London because it is far and away the biggest local market.
Re your connection issues ex GLA my perception (comparing say to Edinburgh) is that Glasgow is predominantly a leisure based market which may explain the shortage of decent alternative hub connections.
Last edited by Itchin McCrevis; 12th Jun 2015 at 22:00.