I'd say it's more to do with Ryanair at Stansted. The ATR-72, as economic as it is would struggle to compete if Ryanair put their prices through the floor. If ryan2000 can say it's a problem for Easyjet, it certainly is for Aer Arann.
I always felt with Easyjet that one route was opening themselves up to a challenge from Ryanair. I would have thought it would have been better to open up 5 or 6 routes from various bases, preferably ones where Ryanair didn't have a presence. As things stand, we could do with some competition to London; the current duopoly have cut capacity and raised prices - good for them, not for us.