I love the CT, too, and spend almost all my online time there. I am trying to figure out why turnout remains pretty low though.
hblair is onto something with encouraging squad nights in the CT. The only drawback to that plan is if a large Allied squad comes in and upsets numbers to a 2 (or more) to 1 gang bang. But I have yet to see this happened - squad leaders have been pretty flexible about flying Axis to keep the sides balanced.
One thing people might not be so wild about is the fewer choices in available planes. I noticed we are earning perk points - what about enabling the P-51D, P-38L, and P-47s as perk rides? The Axis side could get the 109G-10, the 190D-9, Ar234, Me262 and Ta152.
It looks like you can independently set perk values by arena, and you guys could keep the value high enough so the planes remain rare. It would give the CT flyers one more thing to work toward in the arena. In a what-if type setup as you have here with "Baltic Beseiged", I don't think it would be too upsetting if the perk rides are set expensive enough to keep them rare.
I can't help thinking with the MA running between 300-400 people, the CT ought to be able to get 50-60 of those.
I think scoring support will help alot too. Some flyers think scoring is for dweebs, but I like to check and see how I'm doing in and against certain aircraft.