You can not blame the "economic crisis
"KLM's UK General Manager Henri Hourcade said: "We launched Liverpool in 2009, at a time of economic uncertainty, when many airlines were reducing their networks - especially out of the regions- and cutting capacity.
"We went against the grain and had encouraging results for the first two years, connecting Liverpool with over 150 destinations around the world.
"However, the continued economic downturn has meant that as a company we have had to make some tough decisions across our global network and unfortunately Liverpool is a casualty of that process."
Source:bbc.co.uk
I suspect that as General Manager, Mr Hourcade should know better than you or I.
KLM didn't pull out of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, hell not even Humberside
What competition did they have on those routes (none or virtually none) and how long had they been operating (more than a couple of years, I would suggest).
Bagso. In terms of non-stop long haul connectivity I wouldn't disagree with you, but there is an issue in terms of inbound traffic and specifically inward investment that the further people have to travel when they get off the plane, the less inclined they are to make the journey. As such the concern for Liverpool is that investors flying in to Manchester will be more inclined to set up in south Manchester rather than south Liverpool.