Its hard to tell with EK what they actually look for in an A380 destination. Those exact words were what people were saying before EK launched the first A380 service.
Personally I think at the moment it's very much to do with publicity etc. MAN is one of their top performing destinations when compared to the services they offer. Not to add to the fact that the UK is such an important market for EK (OZ/NZ-UK is such a massive market for EK which they are slowly but surely taking from the likes of BA and QF.)
The A380 at MAN was the first 'regonal airport' in the world to get a commercial service got MAN, the A380 and in turn EK unbelievable press coverage.
I guess when you've got 90-odd on order and money in the bank the idea of picking your most lucrative routes early on it's really essential and using the plane as a
PR stunt is.
Having said that I don't mean to take anything away from MAN! It's proved it can handle at least one A380 every day - most likely more!
I can see the EK21/22 being added first, then the 2nd A380 next year personally.
Completely agree - they need to now compete not only on capacity and price but also connectivity. The benefits of this would also include, as you say, extra cargo capacity which is severely needed for EK.