Smart move by MAG. Their intervention was perhaps not decisive but taken in recognition of the history of squabbles which are essentially about access to London airports but disadvantage MAN in the process. Egyptair etc.
LAX_LHR, your initial point was quite clear to me, a rhetorical question - why is MAG doing this other than it must have an imperative i.e. a queue waiting to take up the vacated ZB slots. Absolutely.