Agree but BA didn't put a penny into GB, aircraft identical, market rates for BA handling (above market rates for engineering), percentage of sales royalties, lots of traffic feed, consistently high customer scores than BA themselves at Gatwick - where's the catch ? Even if timing wasn't right they could have entered agreement to do something later and they effectively ceded LGW to U2 !
Seems like some big egos may have called it strategically wrong imho - they did it with Dan Air and that was far more complex. Ho hum BA being pushed into third place on SH ex LGW by U2 and DY. Things could have been quite different for BA. Jet star manage for QF......,