I dont post much, but post 2478 gave me some food for thought. In particular the posters concern about what effect Jet2 putting a base in a nearby airport might do to Manchester and how management appears to be incompetent as a result.
I look at it a different way. Manchester historically has been so good at drumming up business that it punches well above its weight for the area it serves. So much so that it has a monopoly to many destinations from the North West/Yorkshire.
Manchester has become so successful that alot of people will put MAN into a search engine before checking their local airport. They book the flight and then drive past their local airport to reach MAN, despite a flight often being available from say LPL or LBA. I've lost count of the times I've asked someone why they didn't fly from LPL when they live much closer, and the response being "Oh I didn't know you could".
To help me illustrate my point, take TFS, Manchester's busiest route in 2022 (and one to be launched by Jet2 at LPL) and compare passenger traffic compared to LBA/LPL
MAN 814,495
LBA 191,476
LPL 71,690
Considering the population of all three metropolitan areas (forget political boundaries) are not vastly different, its clear to see how effective MAN management have been historically in securing business.
Further to this, with Liverpool in particular, the difference in journey times by car from most areas away from these cities is relatively small.
To consider the thoughts in your post, is this not a bit of long overdue rebalancing? For short haul/high demand destinations at least, which is exactly Jet2's core market.
Why should the locals of Leeds/Liverpool trek all the way to Manchester when their own city is certainly large enough and connected enough to sustain a more diverse choice of flights?
Why should airlines put all their eggs in one basket and not have a base at others to trade the two off to get better fees.
To me, the average consumer, I can only see it as a positive that there is more choice. I consider MAN to have enjoyed a near monopoly in the North for too long and a dose of competition is what's needed to benefit the wider public.
I would imagine in an ideal world, the quick selling short haul destinations market would be fairly equal in size from MAN/LBA/LPL, with MAN excelling in the more niche markets and long haul as it is more central to the wider population. The reality is far from that, even with considering all the quirks of the aviation industry (e.g duplicating base costs).