Absolutely.
When Manchester was focussed on preventing government takeover, then on gaining routes in the face of BEA/BOAC resistance; when the management's aim was to build a network of services with a range of carriers and encourage passengers by means of an excellent experience at the airport the airport survived, grew, prospered and was an asset the staff and the genera lpopulation could be proud of. In those days (and they didn't finish that long ago) the management were dedicated to making a profit from giving the customers (both passengers and airlines) a first class operation and the core was AVIATION.
Many of the middle and senior managers were aviation professionals of long standing, either home grown or the best the airport could afford to bring in.
Now the management is at one remove from direct control by the Councils and seems to be dominated by bean counters. Shops, offices, franchises, warehouses and just about everything else seem to come before giving passengers a pleasant passge through the terminals and though the transport access, the airside facilities and the range of destinations would have only been fantasy 30 years ago, somewhere in the last 10 years or so the primary purpose of the operation seems to have been forgotten in the race for buyouts of other airports and the establishment of secondary income streams.
There is nothing wrong with buying other airports or with secondary income streams being sought when the raison d'etre for the operation comes first.. Currently, at Manchester, it seems to come well down the list.