After reading another post on another forum this morning, I do think BA could make MAN a small holiday hub with Kuoni/BA holidays, similar to VS at MAN, but thats a different business model and arguement completely
Absolutely, you almost answered your own question. Business model. Nobody asks of TCX to operate scheduled NYC......because we recognise and accept that thats not part of it's strategy.
I do understand what you say however regarding peoples perceptions but does a business lose money in order to put those wrong perceptions right? Hopefully most people travelling to, for example, HKG will realise that whether they fly EK or BA, there is still a stopover/connection to be made. Many, admittedly, would prefer to get a huge chunk of the journey straight away ex MAN and therefore like EK whilst others prefer to get the long haul flight done in one long stretch.
LHR, as we know, isn't the most efficient of airports but connecting there isn't all that bad (especially T5) and whilst it's not as seamless as my experience of DXB, i wouldn't hesitate using LHR in the future.
Even if BA had long haul flights ex MAN, for most destinations there would still be a requirement to connect via LHR as even the most hardened protestor here would admit that BA long haul destinations would be quite select.