Balance Boy , The MON Male flights will operate direct because the charterer KUONI qte "do not want their customers flying thru Islamic States (i.e. BAH) in the Arabian Gulf en route to Male" !!
Male is in the Maldives and guess what, the Maldives is 100% Islamic? Has nobody told them or you. Enjoy your holiday.
Forget CAI as a tech. stop. Why pull out of BAH and use CAI? Egypt is top of the list on the UK DTLR threat risks, its damned expensive for fuel, catering and not the best place in the Middle East for UK crews to relax.
BAH combines the best pricing in the region, eg. for fuel, catering, hotac, pubs, etc and is uniquely safe.
BAH has been home to MON for more than 10 years, we even name dishes in the "Warblers" after MON.
Oh by the way, MON were on the ground here this morning with an A300.
Its business as usual.