While Manchester Airport has lots of flights to lots of destinations, I tend to choose to fly from my local airport, Newcastle, to save both time and money. At three hours each way on the train and a return fare of £68.30, the slog down to MAN and back is rarely worth it. I wouldn't say that Manchester's catchment area is the whole of the North of England and Southern Scotland; it is more anywhere from where it takes less effort to get to a viable alternative. If there's no convenient flight from NCL, I'll route via AMS or CDG, or try EDI. However, it does, in my view, include places from where you can fly to Manchester to make connections. Thus while I'd say that Newcastle is not within comfortable reach of Manchester Airport, places with regular air links to it, like the Isle of Man, Aberdeen and Belfast, are. I remember that many years ago, a Newcastle-Manchester flight was part of the Dan Air City Link service. Bring that back, someone, and I'll use it.