Shed,
Great post, but, I do have to disagree with some you have said.
For example 'the increase of summer 15 versus 14 isn't as great as lead to believe'.
Lets look at this.
We are loosing 3 based Monarch, and as you say, about 5 A320 flights to Heathrow per day. Nobody has tried to hide that. We have also lost about 6 A320 flights per week in the form of 1 less TAP per week, 2 less SAS and 1 less Aegean' Lastly, we loose about 3 months worth of Egyptair based on the S15 schedule season and their re-start (all based on S4 to S15).
But, and here is the but, what have we gained? Im not going to do the whole list again, its a bit too repetitive for my liking, but, all things considered, how that can be considered anything but significant expansion is just a fallicy?
I mean, yes, less Ryanair expansion that anticipated os a downer, but, its not a loss, is it? We still have a month of 8 based aircraft from them, we still have new routes to Chania, Stuttgart, Eindhoven and Shannon.
All in all, yes, there are some losses, and there will be, its the nature of the business, but, I must say, Im genuinely surprised that people seem to be trying to find the single thorn in a bed of roses.
Glass half empty dig? Consider it to be one if you so wish, however, when we have seen so many increases for S15, why some cannot be satisfied with that is rather odd, just what will it take for those to say 'S15 looks to be in a good place'. I mean, it could be much, much worse.........