Not sure I agree with some of that.

Believing that Stansted is too far out is the old thinking. With a 30 min train service to Tottenham Hale (ideal tube connections to the West End) and 45 mins to Liverpool Street (ideal for the City) then it is a good bet.

Witness the massive growth at STN over the past 2 years.

The real challenge for BAA is to work out smart ways of taking full adcanatge of having a ring of airports around London and yet not let the fact they are some distances apart be a disadvanatge.

Dont forget no one actually wants to go to an airport. They want to get to some other place and the aiport is just the strating finsihing point for the air element of the journey.

If there is an excellent rail / road infratsructure (and I believe in letting rail take as much of the burden as possible) then having a ring of airports around London can be very beneficial.

The abolition of Duty Free was always going to cause a short term problem but thats that. Foot and Mouth again temporary.

Long term having an ecxellent multi modal multi location airprot system will do very well indeed.