In the same way that having a plethora of airlines providing links over their hubs to Hong Kong and China has stopped Cathay Pacific start non-stop to Hong Kong with Hainan Airlines to Beijing from June (and may be Xi'an next year) with a nod and a wink for Air China to Shanghai?
The 5 big mideast carriers EK, EY, QR, TK and WY (soon) have far more frequencies between MAN and several cities in India than in China, partly a legacy of the large amount of Indians working in the Gulf.
For example, all 5 carriers link (or will link in the case of WY) MAN to BOM, BLR, HYD and MAA; 4 of them link MAN to AMD, COK, CCU, DEL and TRV; 3 to CCJ; and 1 to ATQ, GOI, JAI, NAG and LKO. That's 15 destinations in India.
In the case of China by contrast, its 4 carriers to PEK, 3 to PVG, 2 to CAN and CTU and 1 to CKG, HGH, and INC.
This makes
direct flights between Manchester and the Chinese mainland much more likely and that is what is happening.
AI and/or 9W would most likely offer just MAN-BOM/MAN-DEL.
Agreed. The hub operators don't seem to have deterred direct services to Pakistan either with PIA and Shaheen now offering what, 11 flights a week between them ? It all comes down to market size and I'm sure a direct flight to India will follow one day. In the meantime we have Goa already, but only seasonal
Probably because PK offered direct routes between MAN and cities in Pakistan long before the mideast carriers came onto those routes. It is not the same for AI which has never been at MAN, it has history at BHX. AI routed between BHX and BOM/DEL in the 1980s/1990s, then returned recently from DEL/ATQ (or is it ATQ/DEL?). It may be a while before AI or 9W are at MAN.