MAN was only ever a temporary home for the 330's
The business case for ordering the 3 A330s was based on there being an Open Skies policy in place by delivery so that the newly launched bmi could expand into transatlantic from Heathrow. Well the agreement came only in 2008, so when the gamble backfired and bmi had 3 A330s coming and nowhere to fly them, they had to do something.
That something was a Manchester based long haul operation operating daily MAN-ORD and MAN-IAD. One up against American, with both code sharing with United. The third aircraft was stored for a summer, leased out then brought into operating MAN-YYZ for Air Canada for a year then in addition to the US routes, bmi launched MAN-UVF, MAN-ANU, MAN-BGI and MAN-LAS. These routes were heavily sold by Virgin Holidays and it's no surprose that Virgin Atlantic have taken up BGI and LAS, with UVF being tried but dropped as the B744 was too big. This remains a
potential Virgin A330 route was it not for the fact that Virgin are moving
ALL their A330s to LHR over the next few years. Sound familiar?
Washington was dropped on the A330 in favour of a leased Icelandair B757 when LHR-BOM was launched and the Carribbeean routes and MAN-ORD were next to go. I think in fairness the only one that made a real impact was MAN-ORD which would have left a one aircraft operation which like MAN-JFK on BA is not something airlines like to do anymore. These aircraft were intended for LHR long haul and never bought for Manchester, which is a shame but is also the truth.