I think with RB (Syrianair) its hit and miss if they come to manchester or not!!! I use to work for servisair who handle them a few years back and we use to call it the secret syrian! it use to come direct from damascus on the old b747sp, then onto heathrow, or vice versa (again all depends on syrian) and other days they use to bring in smalller aircraft. Now some days we use to set up checkin as we thought there was a flight....but no passengers! other days we would be watching the screens in the office and all of a sudden a RB aircraft would appear showing landing in half an hour etc! thats why we use to call it the secret syrian!! now as i havent worked there for a few years now i dont know if they still operate into manchester but like others say, other options may be turkish, air france, klm etc.