strategy missing
"One of the ideas I have mulling in my head is that EZY need this for strategic reasons - is this going to be their staging post for a new base in order to expand their operations into the Middle East?"
...that sounds interesting, but. Unfortunately over the last years EZY was lacking any real strategic moves (apart from big aircraft orders). What we are doing in Continental Europe is only "joining the dots", fair enough. But at the same time, competitors are going into new markets all the times, and we are not. Neither do we fly to winter holiday destinations (be it Ski resorts or warm spots in the south/southeast) nor have we started attacking the Turkish market from Germany, we just leave it to Turkish carriers (Sunexpress/LH) and Air Berlin. Our marketing team here in DE doesnt seem to quite understand what the market wants in my opinion.