Flypuppy
It matters not whether the aircraft or property is leased or owned, in fact in some cases it can be an advantage for it to be leased, who for example would want to to say buy Jet2 and take on an owned fleet of classics ?
I do agree with what you say about someone not wanting the brand if they have a strong brand or presence in the Midlands, but the top two brands in terms of awareness FR & Easyjet aren't likely to be interested, Jet2 could be, but aren't on the short list, for Jet2 it would at a stroke give them a massive presence in the midlands and a customer base of forward bookings well into 2012 that they don't have to sell.
If however you are new to the loco market or have no brand, then the brand has value, but we are going round in circles here! In a few weeks or so you will see what I see.
Worst case they, but who? Will pull the shutters down, or you will see new ownership, or something in between, at this point all options including very little remain on the table,a good few fellow Ppruners have choked on eating their hats in speculation over baby and bmi these past years, as ever expect the unexpected!!
FR
Yes FR could do more damage if they were interested, but many wrote WW of as soon as FR put more aircraft into EMA, what happened is that EMA has more WW aircraft now than 3 years ago and BHX will have more in a few weeks time.
A lot will change this next month, but most of us still expect WW to be around this time next year, but in what form is way above my pay grade...
Have great weekend
Inkjet