Problem with the 748/360 etc is that although they are pretty damn good aeroplanes for the job, they are being forced out of the market place by the cost of modifications such as TAWS, TCAS etc etc, although i'm not sure if this is the dramatic reference to grounding of aircraft that you say in your post.
One would assume a company with Emeralds resources would already have the ball rolling on these issues and would be able to absorb the costs easier than some of the smaller companies.
I hear the future is looking better for them, although you know who will not have been happy he lost out on a few of the recent RM contracts, but on the plus side he did get a few Scottish ones.
No doubt will have to look a bit further afield for work now as there arent many RM tenders coming up, and the head honchos at FedEx in Brussels dont seem to be pushing much any work to them (or anyone else for that matter) due to their golden handcuffs deal with ACL which is understandable.