bmi management lost any interest in Man longhaul a long time ago!
Manchester has a large catchment area of people who just don't want to fly out of LHR & all the hassle that goes with it. The long haul flights out of Manchester are busy most of the time - If bmi can get bums on seats ...... & they can! - maybe the simple answer was that they were not charging enough!!
Unfortunately, although the "BIG" announcement was cancelled for tomorrow, I'm sure it will be made sooner or later & the result will be the same .............. The end of long haul out of Man & the loss of a lot of jobs. Very sad.