As I said that the stats for MAN are up to November 2002 and are official figures released by the CAA.
The CAA have released provisional figures that includes December 2002 and that is gives the annual total for 2002 at 18619751. The total for the year ending December 2001 was 19307261.
Re coaches to Manchester coach station. I think I am right in saying that easyJet and Ryanair, in the past, have provided coach links.
You can also get the train to Manchester via Allerton, about ten mins from LPL, rather than go into the city centre.