Skipness, what I wrote may read as harsh but once they had the spark of starting Go!, they should have headed off easyJet at the outset by basing it away from the London area and, regrettably, abandon the hub strategy they they appeared to be developing; they never did quite harness the European flights into feeding the long-haul.
In terms of letting the Gulf carriers dominate the regions, sadly I have to wonder why the three alliances are letting them do this; SQ I keep hearing that half the F class is being booked out of MAN and J class is difficult to book. That cargo plays a part in keeping MAN viable should make me wonder if they will take the decision to delink the service again and trust the alleged pattern of F and J class bookings will continue. Although there is some murmuring about the current route being upgraded to A380 in the medium term.
Anywhere, it's reported elsewhere that they were 503 pax inbound today and 501 pax outbound on today's service.