Originally Posted by
pred02
Right, I am not saying eliminate all flights to LHR, but start to include a few flights to STN. I mean there is enough flights to London from the US, even some less-than-a-hub airports have more than one flight a day or more than one airline flies... And if business customers were the only revenue for the airlines, well, then why fly Y-class people at all?
I didn't say they were the only revenue, did I? I'm saying you need a balance. All-coach tourist-and-backpacker US-UK services like Laker and PeopleExpress haven't worked historically even serving closer-in LGW. And all-business-class airlines are typically seen as a bad idea -- vulnerable to business downturns, and hard to fill in August or around the holidays. (Branson's initial idea about VS was to make it an all-business-class airline. Wiser heads talked him out of that in about five minutes.)
The only transatlantic carrier that has bravely cultivated a bunch of secondary stations in the UK is CO, which serves LGW, BRS, BHM, MAN, GLA, and EDI I believe, but which closed STN a few years ago owing to poor performance. STN is too far from London to be a credible third LON airport, and not close enough to another major city to generate enough O/D traffic. I think there are pretty good reasons why it hasn't developed as a transat base.