For the majority of the Liverpool area, it takes around an hour to goto Manchester, to then catch a flight which takes 50 minutes ... effective use of time ... you work it out.
Liverpool is a growing economy, booming, and set for a similar step change with the capital of culture title ... in a similar way to how the commonwealth games changed manchester.
Virgin trains operate an hourly train service to London from Liverpool, all the pre 9AM departures are solely business travel ... as the only tickets available on these services are flexible return, or first class returns. Price range ... £170 - £240 .... this is, without doubt a business market - a fact proved by research, consultation etc etc etc etc.
Now, few quick sums, each train has 10 carriages, each with lets say 80 seats on, by my reckoning that gives (M-F) a total of 16 - 20,000 one way seats per week to London on the first 4/5 trains per day! This is before we even think about those who drive down!
Now, add into the equation a 3 hour (if the gods are smiling) train tride, in a train with possibly no heat, and sitting outside Milton Keyenes cos it's winter and there's a little leaf on the line, then a cramped, uncomfortable smelly tube ride accross london, and suddenly you realise, VLM have not lost it really ... not difficult to fill a few 50 seaterss which whisk these people off at high speed and right to where they want to go. And we've not even talked about the prospect of filling the midday flights with a few more leisure orientated passengers!
I guess a lot of people on here are either mancunians or Southerns, which is great ... but before you all express your antiquated, and blatently wrong views of one of the UK's most misunderstood cities, might I suggest you visit it sometime ... and you'll see why these airlines are set to make a fortune!