Did you miss the news story some months back that EZY have closed their Stansted base?
No, I saw it. But there is quite a difference between closing a base, or closing a base to then hand over all of your slots to your largest competitor. Most airlines hand their unwanted slots back to the coordinator and hope that they don't go that way!
Makes me wonder what they have received in return - cash? A promise of an equivalent number of LTN slots by seat capacity?