IIRC, and this is without looking at the threads at the time, this was the situation.
VS wished to get rid of one aircraft from the LGW/MAN fleet. Originally this was rumoured to be G-VAST and indeed sources said that a potential suitor was found and lawyers were instructed (I would imagine VS used their usual lawyers who are Harbottle and Lewis). Rumours suggesting that the other carrier balked when undertaking due diligence at the number of cycles the aircraft had undertaken.
Shortly afterwards G-VROM was sent off to Aerosur on a rather long lease. Whether Aerosur were originally hoping to get G-VAST is anyones guess.
Of course this is all heavily rumoured based and I certainly can't back any of this up, and IIRC VS got a bit touchy over sites such as this and A.net knowing about the Aerosur deal before it was announced.
The EY 343 that was to be leased was the previous summer, IIRC Summer 2008 (although it could have been announced in Summer 08 for Summer 09 season). She was going to be used mainly from MAN and LGW into MCO to provide extra capacity, again IIRC VH announced VS would increase its flights into MCO to four a day from LGW. This was canceled at the last minute due to the credit crunch and the knock on effect this had at VS.
As it stands today none of the 744 will be retired in the near future. The leases on these birds have been extended and G-VROM will be returning in 2012. The only aircraft that are being "retired" are the two 346's currently parked up in France. These are in long term storage but were two of the 346 prototypes and were always earmarked for an earlier return to Airbus so that they could be used for spares! Reading between the lines, some sort of deal was done with Airbus at the time of sale regarding those two birds, whether that be that they will be replaced by two brand new 346s (clearly VS have decieded they dont want them to be) or that since the sale some sort of deal was struck with the order of the 330's.
