I still think MAN has a long way to go to reach its potential and act as the primary global gateway for the north of England and Scotland.
This was Gil Thompson's stated objective but be honest, that predated the fragmentation of airport policy and the rise of open skies in Scotland and Edinburgh taking off after years of being politically restrained. Given most of the main MAN long haul carriers have a presence at either GLA /EDI,your asking them to cannibalise their own traffic. Emirates doesn't want it's GLA traffic at MAN and Delta don't want EDI traffic using VS out of MAN. There will be feed of course but MAN is not going to be the long haul airport of choice for the Scottish market.