It's the reticence of airlines to even THINK of not having to serve London to meet the UK market that hinders regional UK growth. It appears that having a non-stop CX service at MAN has not held back any operator offering connecting service there from either MAN or LHR.
Very good point, however it's maybe worth considering the terms of what you're saying. If you want to serve
the UK market via long haul, LHR has both historically and currently performed better than anywhere else. No one would seek to serve "the UK market" from
MAN *only*, whereas loads serve the UK market from LHR only.
Compare LHR:MAN like for like in terms of frequency of those carriers offering service from both airports.(if someone wants to do capacity feel free)
It's skewed way beyond population density I think?
Eastbound
CX 5:1
SQ 4:1 (split with MUC)
EK 5:3
EY 2:3
QR 6:2
Westbound
UA 17:2
AA 17:3
DL 12:1
DL / VS 29:4 ** amended for Westbound only
AC 12: 1 (MAN = Rouge and seasonal)
FI 2:1
BA well......maybe not.