Bagso
You are right about North America lagging behind. It seems to me that there are places no bigger than Manchester that justify more long haul routes to the US e.g Dublin has EI to JFK, Chicago and Boston, Delta to JKF and Atlanta, Continental x 2 to Newark, US to Phil and American to Chicago (plus seasonal daily Air Canada and 4 per week seasonal Air Transat to Toronto). Remember Man has lost BA to JKF plus the various bmi routes (though I felt these always seemed a bit half hearted) plus much Canadian traffic.
Surely some of the huge North American market in the London area must be drawing people from the Northwest or are they all going via Ams - though the volume on that route might suggest otherwise?