Why announce a base which isn't going to have any routes on sale for at least another five or six months?
Most airlines now will either be starting to or are well into planning their Summer 2017 network / schedules. It must certainly give the competition an idea on where to put more planes next summer if nothing else.
It's debatable also that a seasonal base can be seen as 'efficient' as McCall puts it.
As has been discussed on here recently and certainly my instincts for the last year or two, things overall don't look quite so prosperous for EZY these days.
Will be interesting to see what happens (if anything) with the winter schedule release tomorrow.