I have had the misfortune to travel on Ryanair many times. It is not like Southwest, and anyone who is telling you that is an idiot -- and I am thinking of the financial press when I say that.

Ryanair is a miserable, painful experience. From the hassle of checking bags, to their making you check almost everything, to the ill tempered employees, to the overcrowded gate areas to the fall of Saigon boarding process. And you will get -0- help when they CNX. None. Zip. Though they don't do that very often; instead they "adjust the schedule".

 

I actually did not hate flying RyanAir.

So long as you know what to expect, it is usually worth the hassle.

 

I was going through Frankfurt Hahn airport a few years ago - I was picking up a cargo plane. I didn't fly in - I was dropped off in a car, but the terminal certainly felt like the Fall of Saigon. Long lines of ****ed off people, people queuing at checking counters with no staff in sight. The line for security was at least two hours long.

I vowed never to fly Ryanair - it looked like a nightmare operation.

 

You never know when your company may position you on a Ryanair flight, as they may be the only game in town at some airports.

 

Probably unlikely, as the airline I'm at now (DAL) doesn't fly to all of the same airports as Ryanair or Easyjet.

But, when I was at the cargo carrier, you have to factor in the ground transportation to the whole equation. A 100-200 euro taxi ride from your hotel to the airport in the boonies kills the savings in the fare. Also - the low fares (1 pound, etc) fares are bought up far ahead of departure. The cargo company I flew for didn't know they needed airline tickets until the day before - or the same day, so many of those low fares weren't available. When I was airlined from A to B, it was on carriers such as British Airways, Thai, or Kuwaiti Air.

Also, the company would have to pay to check two bags, overnight bag and flight kit, which further cuts into any savings from the legacy carriers.

 

Ryanair's income is derived from passenger and baggage fees, goods sold on the jet, real estate, credit cards, Hertz in Europe, hotels, mortgages and what not. Back in the day Ryanair cut a lucrative deal with Boeing for aircraft purchases. A number of those aircraft were subsequently sold at a pretty good profit.

In the US when you purchase an airline ticket to a specific city… it’s to a specific city. With Ryanair when you purchase a ticket to let’s say Paris, it’s actually Beauvais which is an hour bus ride to the city center.

Last year, my better half had to position from Ireland to Germany with Ryanair with 9 of her fellow crewmembers. The tickets were about 130 Euros each. The baggage charge was in the area of 2500 Euros. At the end of the day it’s a cost that was borne by the company, and not the crew. Needless to say, that was a banner flight for Ryanair.

The travelling public in Europe, the consumer, purchase their tickets, pitch up for their flight, and accept the inconveniences that go along with the low fares, be it with Ryanair, Easyjet, Air Berlin. US carriers, with the exception of Southwest, have jumped on the Ryanair band wagon as when it comes to nickel and diming their passengers for every service.

A nice feature of Ryanair is that the cabin crew aren’t hard to look at, and the fleet is young.

 

Add to that collected taxes that will never come due.

Many people buy tickets on Ryan Air for pennies.
In their mind it is a no loss proposition, even if the trip is canceled.

For each ticket, Ryan collects taxes.
These are, along with the fare, non-refundable.
If the passenger does not fly, the airline does not owe the taxes collected.

 

Very true!!! I forgot to mention those passengers that don't show up for their flights. Same applies to non-refundable tickets with most US carriers too.