Roverman, do you realise how patronising some of your posts come across as? I for one appreciate the contribution that MAN makes to the northern economy, but I do not see that concentrating access to the region via one point helps other areas. The 'ripple' effect does not work in economic terms.
There may well only be room for one northern hub airport, and logic says that should be Manchester, but there are different markets at play here, and as demonstrated at Liverpool, Leeds and to some extent Blackpool, there is significant demand for point to point traffic from those airports. At present the economic climate makes that tough to sustain, but airports are generally a long term investment.
Given that despite the huge drop in Manchester pax numbers in recent years and the fact profits have remained steady, suggests that either other parts of the Group, especially EMA, are making notable contributions to the financial performance, or that income from pax is actually not that great and that the large majority of income comes from ancilliary activities and property - something MAG is well ahead of its competitors on.
Given future traffic forecasts, even the lower estimates now produced by the DfT, there is room for growth and a profitable future at More than just MAN.