There are direct routes from Manchester airport to a host of cities across the north of England,
Manchester itself is connected as are the likes of Leeds, York, Blackpool, Liverpool, Newcastle all of those would be direct from the airport, for the likes of Sunderland you would have to change at Manchester Picadilly.
I think the Saturday morning service should be quite popular and this might help the Sunday afternoon services to Cork as well. I've been traveling the route with EI on pretty much a monthly basis since they began it, I've noticed it getting an awful lot busier lately, when it started I would have a row of 3 to myself, sometimes 6 seats, or averaging less than 100 sets sold. Over the past 12 months it has gotten to the point where most of the aircraft is full, At least 150 passengers - which is the norm across the week according to the crews I've chatted to. Lately it's gotten to the stage where even the emergency exit rows are assigned - this was never the case previously.
It's good to see EI seeing some growth from somewhere....