philbky, MAN has a hell of a lot of sustainable routes that have operated for years. Sure, there has been losses but there have been strong performances on many of our services. 12 years ago who would have imagined we would have upto 7 daily services by the ME3, with one carrier operating 3 of them with nothing smaller than a 77W and one rotation being an A380. We still have one of AA's (reportedly) best performing European routes and continue to served well by Lufthansa and other European majors.
Charter wise, MAN has weathered the decline of the market but is still the main, or one of the main bases, for TOM and TCX. LCC's meanwhile, are doing well. Sure, there has been a bit of chopping and changing from Easyjet but they have launched and sustained routes that MAN needed, notably ATH and SXF.
I think you're wrong in saying that MAN has failed to launch and keep sustainable services. Some would say MAN punches above it's weight and does incredibly well.
p.s does anyone know why my 'quote' button doesn't work?