The charters also sell a number of seats on flight only.
For the Sharm route I personally think it would be better to open it from Liverpool rather than Manchester due to the Manchester market being rather saturated with the route already whereas Liverpool has none.
The MAN-SSH route is far from saturated! The airlines are using wide bodied aircraft and they are still flying full year round - simply because it is priced fantastically and it is much cheaper than dealing with the Euro.
Further distance (trust me, people think flying further makes the holiday seem more expensive!), better weather, cheaper prices, year round sun - win, win, win, win.
Wasn't it the year round sun that made the Canaries what they are today?
Also, LPL, as mentioned earlier, has nowhere near the demand that MAN has, whatever anyone says. U2 may seem to be adding to already proven routes, but we aren't in a time of prosperity - U2 have the customer base, price advantage so can compete with already settled carriers on routes already established instead of spending money on creating new traffic.
I'm sure MAN-SSH will be one of U2's most profitable routes on it's network - we northerners LOVE to spend money onboard!
(If anyone saw the old Airline episodes with Brittania, they may have seen the rather camp, yet fantastic cabin service manager explain that southerners will try and save as much money on a flight home whereas us northerners want to spend spend spend - probably what makes MAN a favourite with the airlines!)