Those of you that have read the various Luton threads on the Airlines, Airports etc Forum over the past 2/3 years will know that the current situation at Luton was almost inevitable unless Luton Borough Council (LBC) took a realistic stance.
The business model at Luton (i.e. LBC as owner franchises the operations out to a third party) has and always will be untenable. LBC crow about it being unique ... yes it's unique because nobody else has copied it because it is unworkable.
You therefore have a position whereby LBC as owner get a hefty charge per passenger using the airport and obstinately refuse to do any deals or offer rebates that might save ot even create jobs.
In Albertis, you have an airport operator who bought out the original incumbent TBI for a vastly inflated sum (without carrying out adequate due diligence??), then table ambitious expansion plans for the airport only to have them shot down in flames by LBC as part of the expansion won't take place on their land. As a result, Albertis are very likely to exercise the break clause in their Franchise Agreement with LBC (in 2014 from memory) and in the meantime are doing all they can to maximise their income from their "investment" in Luton.
The result is that you have the airport owner and airport operator who have boxed themselves into a corner for different yet related reasons and who either can't or won't accept the reality of the current economic situation.
I'm not suggesting that this is the only reason for the announcement from EZY, but the position here is somewhat different to the "usual sabre-rattling" over airport charges frequently exhibited by RYR.
OLY1B