"Bosses at easyJet, founded by the entrepreneur Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, plan to carry up to 1.4m passengers a year from Manchester on about 15 routes by 2010"
Pretty much what Jet2 offer at the moment.
When you take into account the massive consolidation at MAN amongst the tour operators and throw in the fact the some of the 1.4m passengers will be existing GB, then in terms of net growth it will all be lost in the roundings. Worse still, it looks as if Peel aren't quite the mugs people think. Getting EZY to target Jet2's and bmibaby's key money routes at MAN and then picking up the surplus at LPL could be a master stroke.
Whichever ever way you cut it, EZY will have a bigger slice of the pie in the North West and less competition only ever leads to one thing. Less passenger choice and higher fares