FDF
Air India did actually operate direct Delhi - Manchester back in the day.
They actually wanted rights to Bombay which was the commercial capital but were prevented due the dreaded bilaterals which only gave rights from Heathrow, and
"wait for it" Prestwick !
Birmingham were allowed India flights but not sure in terms of the timeline when these were granted. Others will know specifics.
Prestwick was the nominated secondary airport for 90% of UK flights but this was more an accident of London based civil servants in the air ministry who just after WW2 needed to put down two airports when a bilateral air agreement was drawn up.
London being one and Prestwick notionally being the second, purely because it was the only other runway in the UK deemed to have a long enough runway for transatlantic flights.
By default it was nominated for just about every other long haul route as well. This was way before any others actually existed.
It wasn't until Manchester grew in stature that it then became a real problem. In many cases it then took years to unravel and was infact a convenient excuse to protect British Airways and indeed Heathrow at the time.
The CEO of Manchester was said to be seething with Whitehall officials at the time who consistently hid behind a wall of red tape.
--------------------------------
With reference to China flights the big prize is of course inbound tourism. The Chinese are far less London Centric than say Americans.
Dwight and Thelma Diddly Bom Bom from Ohio think we all live next to Liz whereas the Chinese are more interested in the UK as a whole.
Whilst the MEBs take many people out the Chinese flights will be bringing as many in.... therein a lies subtle difference.
Last edited by Bagso; 22nd May 2016 at 07:30.