Given that RYR are a raging capitalist organisation, the first place to point a finger would be at low yield. Planes can be full all day long but at £9.99 each way, if nobody purchases any extra’s they ain’t going to be making any money.
I also don’t believe they had any real intention of staying on the route. STN makes much more sense. In my opinion, the LGW thing was an attempt to piss off easyJet whilst also raising their profile again in NI.
Looks like the ability to book Gatwick has been removed now from the booking engine. It would appear that route is officially dead and the score is easyJet 1-0 Ryanair. It will be interesting to see if Ryanair continue to price dump on STN in order to squeeze easyJet.