We all know the Governement pays lip service to "regionals" this simply mean MANs potential contribution is totally lost, despite that fact it could handle another 20m pax NOW!
I don't think Manchester Airport is seen as being quite as regional as you make out. The key issue is that MAN already has strategic growth infrastructure in place.
MAN is the LHR of the local area in that it dominates and sucks in traffic from the catchement areas of LPL / LBA / NCL / GLA even, and it got the infrastructure in place to grow. It's not a serious contention that STN needs to grow or indeed SEN or even LCY by much, strategically it's LHR / LGW market driven growth driver we're trying to get kick started with more capacity.
trying to persuade BA or Virgin to develop a 2nd operating hub which quite obvioulsy they have no interest in.
Worth considering what the market will support. Can MAN support a VS long haul hub? LGW can't do that and they don't really hub at LHR. People always say they'd be willing to pay "a wee bit more" for a quality service then go and book the cheapest deal possible......
LHR recently got a weekly EK B77F on a Saturday as they've gone all A380 now so wouldn't surprise me.