"The other option to thin routes is putting the aircraft at more established, and thus more expensive, airports. This further erodes the perceived competitive advantage. They tried this tactic at DUB, putting lots of aircraft in to run EI out of town and it failed miserably as EI ran up record profits and a higher load factor on shorthaul than ryr. Expect it to fail elsewhere also, the public can't be fooled forever. "
Aer Lingus did not have higher LF's that RYR at DUB. Neither Airline releases LF's for a base. RYR's figure would include all bases I believe. EI's would mainly be Dublin, so I dont think you can compare.
Also EI's record profits were only compared to their own standards. If their best ever profit was 5 EUR and then they made 8 EUR, they would be record profits. Does not necessarily mean its a decent performance.