I believe officially the best connected airport in the UK is Gatwick, granted serving a different catchment!
Manchester & Birmingham are not at all far off with quick and frequent connections to their respective main city stations, far better than the links to fortress Heathrow; which excluding the (very expensive) Heathrow Express, are pitiful.
I'm pleased to see growth, though this is a trend not exclusive to Manchester, all major UK airports have experienced growth (some record numbers) this year, this has been increasing over the last few years as people are flying again now we're out of recession. That said, this IS without doubt a great opportunity to exploit it's catchment which is still a very convenient option even for those of us living in Yorkshire.