Oh and on the reason why TCX stopped STN Longhaul, This was down to operational needs not lack of bums on seats.
Do you have some factual back-up to support that statement or could you equally well be accused of conjecture as I have been for the statements I've made?
I'll try to keep this factual - but if you have the experience base you suggest, then you should surely know that there is no cost to continuing to operate slots to which you hold grandfather rights, as TC have for their Gatwick services. Their LGW slot portfolio is long established, and built through Caledonian, Flying Colours, Airworld, JMC and a long lineage. They do not need to pay for LGW slots - provided they meet the criteria in the EU slot regulation, then they are granted them in perpetuity. There is no cash cost of those slots, so your point of being able to save money on slots by moving from existing, long-term slots they hold at LGW is inaccurate.
I'll repeat: airlines are not in the business of pulling profitable routes. If there were operational reasons - e.g. positioning crews, empty legs with aircraft to fly the STN programme - then those would ultimately become cost reasons. If your income from ticket sales (no matter how many) then doesn't cover your costs including those type of aspects, the route/s are unprofitable and you stop. It is quite possible that someone else with a different business model could make those same routes profitable, and I am not one of the subscribers to the view that any and all long-haul at STN is doomed to fail - Emirates appear to be sufficient proof of that at an early stage to suggest otherwise. But for TC, it's a non-starter. We can keep going round and round this debate, but the indisputable fact is that they've pulled the operation completely. If it was as marvellous as is being suggested, there must be something incredibly badly wrong in the airline's decision making. The reported figures suggest the airline is doing fine and the issues are in the tour operator and retail aspects. That leads to a conclusion that the airline's decision making can't be all that bad.