"I grabbed a latte in the Departure Lounge, and reflected on the difference between an airport and a station. When you arrive at Manchester Piccadilly, you have arrived in Manchester. A station is somewhere.
But an airport is an in-between place, neither here nor there. When you arrive at Manchester Airport, you have in fact been dumped in the middle of the Cheshire countryside. It is as genuinely Mancunian as Man U, forced into the outskirts by the respectable citizens who support their local, who are called Manchester City.
An airport, like Man U, belongs to nobody and nowhere. A station belongs; it has identity. Airports are part of a soggy, lowest common denominator world culture, like Man U, Oirish pubs or Starbucks.
Apologies to the residents of Trafford here, incidentally, though if I were you, I'd support Altrincham"
Ian Marchant - Parallel Lines 2003