easyJet expands services at Manchester Airport – the future is orange

As easyJet continues its evolution towards becoming more of a business airline, it has announced additional routes at Manchester Airport (MAN), UK, for 2013.

A seemingly innocuous statement (it will add routes at other airports also, of course) belies the impact that easyJet - and Ryanair - are having at an airport that once treated LCCs as if they were an unwelcome virus from another planet, as it sought to become the UK's northern international hub.

But things have changed. Manchester is now bracketed with the UK's other 'regional' airports rather than as a national intercontinental gateway (though it does remain one) and increasingly behaves like a regional airport. Meanwhile, what was the 'preferred' carrier there for many years (British Airways) has virtually exited Britain's third busiest airport altogether.

As easyJet grows in strength at MAN the future, to paraphrase a well known British television commercial, seems to be orange, with a little yellow and blue thrown in for good measure.