MIDAS & India
The head of MIDAS (Manchester's inward investment agency) is in discussions with India's Minister of State for civil aviation about direct flights to Delhi and Bombay.
Cites that MAN is europe's 6th busiest market in Europe (presumably after LHR, AMS, CDG, MUC, FRA) for traffic to India (almost all of which will be at least one stop). The cited figure is "270k people travelling per year".
I assume this actually means 270k total journeys, rather than 270k people taking multiple journeys (e.g. a round trip). Using this basis, this equates to 380 passengers per day each way, so enough for a daily widebody with some excess. If you add the simulation from a direct route, this may permit a daily service to DEL and the same to BOM.
This is not the be all and end all (usual caveat about yield apply for example) but it is good to see this point in the right direction in light of the recent rumour about VS and Jet (amongst others).