the talk is that monarch is the fav to take over the main hangars and training
Interesting, but I am sceptical...
Monarch Engineering have only just this year opened a huge hangar at Birmingham capable of holding 2x 777-300's, and they also have major maintenance bases at Luton and Manchester... (I think Gatwick too?!)
Seeing as this huge increase in Maintenance capacity only became available this year, I doubt they will be looking to increase capacity again that soon...
With regards to Monarch starting up scheduled flights from the airport, they have only operated flights if they have based aircraft at airports previously. Their smallest bases at present are EMA and LBA with 2 aircraft based at both, could Exeter really support 2 aircraft flying exclusively on scheduled services to sunshine destinations, for example with both flying 3 routes a day? That is potentially 42 departures and 42 arrivals a week!
You also have to throw into the mix, Monarch operate the A320 as their smallest aircraft, with 180 seats. That is a 50% increase on the capacity of a FlyBE EMB-195, if they are struggling to use this sized aircraft to the Med how can you expect an A320 to work?
Both airlines also operate around the same price point, usually being a little more expensive than the likes of easyJet and Ryanair, so there is unlikely to be any £20 flight sales with Monarch to fill the seats.
If they were to base a single A320 at the airport, they are a long way from any other bases for crewing and support purposes with Luton and Birmingham nearly 200 miles away!