Can someone give me a history lesson?
London is the main international/long-haul hub of the UK, has an attempt been made by an airline to establish a longhaul operation outside of London? What happened with that? I have heard that BA used to have a lot of MAN activity, why was that cancelled?
The point I'm trying to make is that if there is capacity at MAN, why is it not a longhaul hub? Flybe seem to use MAN as a hub but this is for domestic and shorthaul traffic, when it comes to longhaul carriers instead use feeders. I doubt it's coincidence that BA, KLM, LH, SN etc all have an early morning flight going out to their main longhaul hubs.
If all the capacity is available, at an airport that supposedly has cheap handling costs and is in a good geographic location, why is it not used as a longhaul hub? Has it ever been attempted?