I apologise, it was 2am, I meant "dropping UK regionals left, right and centre" but exactly... Why would an airline deliberately sacrifice a route? They aren't offering connections, the timings are crap, and they cost more than Ryanair with little to no improvement in service? Why would anyone choose to use Aer Lingus now? I hope it's just for the winter and I hope it's not just to do with NCL but this is baffling and rather infuriating.
If this is the way it's to be, I hope Ryanair are going 3 daily or 16/17 weekly (2 daily all week with 3 daily Sun, Mon, Fri or similar) and interlining through DUB. They'll need to re-time their morning flight though.
Also, I've noticed you can't actually book connecting flights through Madrid with Air Europa...