Flightrider - what you say is indeed a remarkable coincidence !
So I've checked with a friend in the know who's told me that 'TravelCity Direct' did drop the contract with EAC ( as you say, in favour of Air Atlanta ) - and gave EAC only a single days notice to that effect ( albeit that it seems a strange contract for EAC to have agreed to ).
In any event, one imagines that when Excel brokered that deal they must indeed have known that it would inflict a grevious blow to EAC - I wonder how much Excel made out of the brokerage ?