Now if MAN had either zero growth or an increase in flights, then is it not unreasonable to speculate that we would be taking in the regions of a 5% or so increase in passenger numbers? The other thing to bear in mind is that we've been advised of a 1.3% increase in available seats this summer so I guess we're not doing that badly?
I suspect it's the fairly drastic reduction in the Monarch operation at MAN that's affected the number of flights (and seats) more than the cessation of Little Red. The start-up of new routes as they happen should help, depending on whether the Monarch impact was fully felt in May or whether it will be worse in the peak summer months.
With growth exceeding the increase in flights at all the airports listed by Ringwayman in post 2215, the average pax per flight presumably increased. I wonder if that reflects the mix of a/c or higher LFs. For MAN, if the increase in seats reported by ACL of 1.3% remains correct, then it seems to me we have to rely on higher LFs, especially on the larger capacity aircraft, to boost numbers.
Incidentally, for UK airports on which ACL report, LGW seats were up 4.7%, STN 9% and LTN 12.8% for the start of summer.