roverman
The UK is one of the most populated area in Europe so not exactly a big surprise that it handles the volumes of passenger. TCX is MAN based and while not a flag carrier, it's as good as one and there are similar airports around Europe with such carriers and tend to do as well as MAN in attracting x, y and z carrier. The only difference with MAN is they have 4-5 of those big carriers and the others only 1 or 2.
Government interference is rarely good for airports, be thankful MAN dons't have it.