Listen, does it not become obvious that bases like AGP, ALC, AHO, FAO, TPS etc are all summer focus bases? Take AGP for instance. It is 5/3 in the summer and 5/4 in the winter. Why - because it is seasonal. Productivity is higher in the summer and lower in the winter. Why - because no fecker wants to lie on the beach in the Costas or the Algarve in November. Sardinia and Scilly completely shuts down in October. I remember when TPS and AHO opened. People were offered 'summer' contracts on a 5/3. They would return to their original base at the end of the season. Same thing in place at ORK (of all places) at the moment. Reason being that the extra capacity will be gone come winter. It will be back to one aircraft flying the Cork - Dublin and Cork - Gatwick route each day.
The AGP and FAO base were like the second coming amongst some crew. Life in the sun, long routes, Mediterranean type lifestyle. However why didn't anyone catch on to the fact that the vast majority of people heading here would be of the Brookfield variety. I think only 15 permanent positions were available for flightdeck. Everyone must have known it would be seasonal, surely???? After all, it's the way Ryanair are moving. And in some bases more so than others.