Hence they operate to/from LHR which remember is exactly where Sir Michael has lobbyed to be since political circumstances forced his hand to start his long-haul business out of MAN.
But why did bmi start here? The only place they couldn't have started LHR long-haul flights to was the USA. But you appear to be suffering the delusions that airlines will tap into "instant profits" with long-haul. I'm sure that they said that they were expecting profitablity on the MAN routes to take 3 years, with last year being counted as year 1. One notes that the "good news" release they issued today talks of strong bookings on the Washington run, with Chicago having dipped.
In time, BA will decide to enhance long-haul services (though it may be 777s in use by then on the MAN-JFK run?), but it will mean that for the next few years, we'll find ERJ145s used to inaugurate services and increase frequencies, with RJ100s then taking up the reigns when a consistent level of patronage occurs. The immediate concern of the airport should be to try to get more passengers to transit through MAN instead of AMS/CDG/LHR.
Oh, please explain why Virgin operate MAN-MCO if they are
interested in point to point traffic between destinations where there is a reasonable proportion of high yielding club / first class passengers
as I note that they consistantly fail to note that service when issuing releases.....it's not per chance a purely tourist route?