LGW may not have a based airline there but it has EZY with over 40 craft based there. It's planes that make money not office blocks hosting airline HQs. FR are predicting yields increasing too but it will be interesting to see what happens.
I see more peripheries of Spain, Greece maybe Italy who are reliant on tourism do deals with FR subsiding services there as the regions seek inward investment.
I do think the LCCs are to blame for the demise of the charters but fail to divest, evolve or die. Look at Polaroid, Nokia and Hoover. If you get complacent, arrogant or fail to adapt with the Market in a timely fashion then you are pretty muh screwed.
There is now less of a need for in-house airlines as tour operators can simply buy a few seats on a plane that someone else is paying for the mortgage, crew, fuel, insurance, navigation, depreciation etc etc.
These are bad times. And although MOL alwas warns of a bloodbath coming "this winter" every year, this year looks to be a particularly tough one. I also think it's time we stopped having to pay APD and the government stops subsidising trains and let's our airlines trade on an equal level.