Cathay would make sense as they already operate a regular freight route to MAN
4 of the 7 slots have been handed back, so not that regular at the moment.
Passenger flt wise, as stated before until the A350 comes along you won't see a scheduled CX pax flt at MAN. one of the reasons given is insufficient feeds into MAN, wheras LHR has many feeder flts. (don't shoot the messenger).
Air China or China airlines, can't remember which, were flying a VIP delegation later this month to MAN, but it has now been cancelled, so you can probably count them out as well.