39 flights a week is 5-6 per day, much less than other core UK domestics like GLA/EDI.
It's not a "problem" it's an option on a UK based carrier supporting thousands of British jobs, it's not Northern enough for some and they don't fly wide bodies. It's not "astonishing" Dobbo Dobbo (huh?) it's a fraction of what it once was even if you restrict it to LHR only. London p2p collapsed once the WCML was finally fixed and of course LGW was dropped. Interestingly, for a supposed gold mine, no one else picked up MAN-LGW.
The Shuttle nowadays is more a connection to long haul, it's much the same as KLM or Lufthansa yet these carriers are much more acceptable than one based in the Home Counties. Only in Britain would anyone be thinking like this...... All hail the ME3?