Of course they are "going for it" - it's just that "it" is no longer an ego trip about being an overflow for Heathrow. Getting in Ryanair & Easyjet brings in punters that spend in the shops and car parks and reduces or elimates capacity at competing airports. MAN is a natural 2nd choice for people that would consider LPL or LBA their 1st choice, If these people can't fly locally they come to MAN and spend in car parks and even hotels in a way that folks coming from Stockport clearly don't ! At the last count, MAN is getting something like £15 - £20 per passenger from people coming from outside of Greater Mcr and the combined opportunity of passengers using other Northern airports is about 10m. 10m x £20 = £200m to get at, per year, or £1bn over 5 years. Going for this, is a much more sensible strategy than wasting time trying to persuade BA or Virgin to develop a 2nd operating hub which quite obvioulsy they have no interest in.