Lets just clear a few things up. Yes LBA's fleet is 8 x 733 and 3 x 752 whilst MAN's is 2 x 733, 3 x 738 & 4 x 752 but overall the bases are very similar. Just because MAN has a higher proportion of 'larger' aircraft does not mean that it is a bigger or better base.
Clearly LBA can only be managing the ~148 seats on a flight when MAN can be achieving ~180 and even up to ~220 filled seats per flight more often.
In fact generally it is the opposite, due to the high competition at Manchester Jet2 have opted to not be bigger but better on their routes. Compared to some bases, routes operate on a relatively low frequency but on larger aircraft. Other bases see higher frequency with smaller aircraft. LBA has the output of a morning 757 departure and afternoon 733 departure to the likes of AGP, ALC, PMI etc whilst MAN can only profitably sustain a single daily 737/757 flight. There are obviously exceptions such as FCO/PRG/BUD that have higher frequencies & bigger aircraft operating than at LBA but generally Jet2 have a lot more longer, thin routes from MAN which reduces what can be done with the aircraft.
LBA has a lot more 6 sector day aircraft, all aircraft operate a minimum of 4 sectors each day apart from tuesdays & wednesdays when the 757's only operate 2 sectors. Compare this to Manchester, where at least one 757 operates only 2 sectors on each day of the week. (Obviously longer sectors i.e. TLV) During summer the last departure from Manchester is around 16.00 however from LBA it is up to 19.10 - accounting for the nature of the routes per base.
Passenger wise, LBA carries more passengers and has around 5/6 more flights per day than MAN but has a lower load factor due to the larger amount of city routes which have lower passenger numbers. As an operation, LBA is significantly larger still. Yes, MAN generally has bigger based aircraft than LBA but there are very little economies of scale. Each aircraft still needs the same number of tugs, steps, dispatchers, passenger agents, fuelers, ramp staff etc etc. So as an operation, LBA is still bigger than Manchester.
I personally do not think it is fair to say Leeds's own airline is struggling to find growth opportunities! I would say new routes to Berlin, Budapest & Gran Canaria along with Funchal & Bodrum last year is significant growth still. LBA has seen AMS & BFS routes cut from 12 to 9 weekly departures but this has been absorbed with frequency increases and timetable changes on other routes. There is little room for growth at LBA until the dire infrastructure is finally improved and finished so 2013 may be an interesting year. However the Jet2 product at LBA & MAN has reached an optimum, there is a very limited number of profitable new routes that can be added to these bases.
At the end of the day, I don't see why there is all the childish bickering between LBA & MAN, they serve different markets and compliment each other excellently. Now that Ryanair have descended on MAN, LBA will always be Jet2's. This is replicated with all airlines, their largest bases are often where their HQ is. Within the company it is well known that most routes from LBA perform stronger than MAN ones as LBA has a very diverse, financially rich local catchment area and has a higher concentration of extremely high yielding routes supported by business traffic. Manchesters route matrix consists of more leisure routes which are supported by Jet2Holidays which has a considerably lower profit margin on the flight part of the package. At the end of the day, who really cares which base is bigger or better? The Manchester guys, you really don't need to big yourselves up, we all know you have a much bigger and better airport all round - no need to get cocky!
