That is how I would see it too.
One of the rumours doing the rounds is that most of Herr Flick/airBaltics recent success was due a close working relationship with a very airBaltic sympathetic & powerful Latvian politician (who wasn't re-elected) and Russian money (with a reputedly fairly anti-Russian Govt recently arriving in power)
Perhaps exaggerated/not 100% accurate, but it would certainly explain the negative direction adopted so soon after the recent elections despite previous very optimistic forecasts for Winter season.
Having said that, if you read through the whole of the 33 page thread in "Nordic Forums" you can see that this On Off On Off scenario is nothing new here, so perhaps we all read too much into what for them (& indeed much of aviation) passes for normal.
Chaos is standard, anything else is a bonus
