laviation - Many thanks for making yourself known and elaborating on your comments made earlier on the other forum. I didn't want to presume your consent to being named on here, but appreciate your willingness to join the conversation.
I do wish to re-emphasise that I have no beef with the routes team and their new figurehead. Quite the contrary, I believe that it is their overly-prolonged post-covid furlough absence which sewed the seeds of the current malaise. The new face of MAN must be afforded time to forge relationships with existing and prospective partner carriers. But most importantly, he and his team must be fully-empowered to offer industry-competitive terms to bring in new business. That requires authorisation from the top. And MAN must be prepared to bite the bullet and incentivise some 'restored' routes as if they were completely new. They'll have to share the financial burden of building back.
SWBKCB - You are correct in pointing out that US point-of-sale remains prioritised at the present time. But the USDX (US Dollar Index) is now well off its recent highs and is forecast to weaken further by respected analysts. And in the specific case of the United Airlines MAN-EWR route, the company has access to years of data confirming just how successful that route was prior to the covid suspension (withdrawal?). Business travel is down, not gone. Leisure travel from the UK is down, not gone. But also gone is the majority of MAN's pre-covid Transatlantic capacity, specifically due to the collapse of Thomas Cook, slashed capacity from Virgin, and the non-restoration of services by US carriers. It should be beyond doubt that UAL can successfully relaunch MAN-EWR against the backdrop of relatively little alternative capacity having been restored to the MAN-US market.
I do endorse your comment implying that MAN enjoys less appeal than some competing destinations in the eyes of US-domiciled leisure customers. However, a good proportion of this market is VFR. If their roots and surviving relatives are here, this is where they want to visit. And Manchester's offer of music, football, foodie-culture and industrial heritage is actually quite trendy at the moment. Well-known US travel magazines have featured Manchester as a top pick over recent months. We're not Paris or Barcelona, but there is a product to be offered. Manchester is at the centre of a region boasting multiple world-class tourist attractions. More promotion of these internationally could deliver dividends.