Let me get this right, Manchester - Madrid is operated by Ryanair now,
easy soon plus Iberia and Monarch/Air Europa. A route which has not operated for a few years now has four potential airlines.
That is correct. Its history repeating. Once one carrier jumps on a route, 2-3 more join in, fight it out, route gets cut back/canned all together and sometimes, goes unserved for 3-4 years (MAD/BER-MAN), and PRG had WW/OK/LS but now just a daily LS next year.
Yes, I saw the IAG story in ABTN and the Monarch article and nowhere did I see Manchester mentioned specifically - is this a case of two and two is five or are these credible rumours?
Its a mix of the 2. Ive heard internally that ZB/AEU will launch MAN-MAD, and someone has seen a slot request for YW/IB (and these guys dont normally apply for MAN slots unless they plan to use).
The monarch rumours also seem to stem from the article that states the AEU/ZB co-operation, and a seperate article that states Monarch will have more Spanish destinations from MAN (and with BCN/AGP/ALC/PMI/IBZ/MAH/TFS/ACE/FUE/LPA/MJV/REU/GRO covered, it leaves SVQ/VLC/BIO/MAD/VGO/SVG. Combine this with the former article, its easy to see why has been singled out.