The explosion of flights via the Gulf is not quite the "bloodbath" that you might suggest Skippy.
Manchester is thee largest City outside London by a long long way, the North West has a GDP as great as some countries in the EU, this is FACT, the demand is there ! Where once passengers relied on the services of what in most cases was an ill informed travel agent, you can now use search engines that can at least offer flights which depart from where demand originates ! As a consequence many of these passengers especially business pax have become much more savvy in relation to travel arrangements and will make their own mind up in terms of a product which suits them
The pax on the Gulf carriers havn't been manufactured out of thin air they simply believe that the product on offer is far superior to that offered by other airline options.
On a second point it never ceases to amase me that when a newsworthy item hits the headlines relating to Heathrow, many of the flights are infact barely half full !
What on earth is the point of 10 flights a day to say Hong Kong where the front end is reasonably full but the back end half empty ? I do not dispute an airline can actually make money on such routes but something is surely skewed if airlines have to operate flights in triplicate even where load factors are so poor.
....if figures quoted on "other forums" are to be believed ALL the loads Ex Manchester are at least more efficient by load factor ........front and back !
Finally if we are going to start asking questions about using a service based soley on human rights what about BA flights to various countries of dubious background ?