I do not particularly like Ryanair but I use them several times a year.They provide services to many cities all over Europe,often but not always at a reasonable or even cheap price. The company is Irish but they have a big following among American investors who own almost half of the shares,which incidentally are part of the NASDAQ 100 Fund,now known as QQQ but soon to be QQQQ. They fly only new Boeings.Book early to get value. They are tooth and claw capitalists and will charge as much as possible on every flight. You might be flying for $20 and the guy next to you may have paid $200 because he booked nearer to the flight date. Read their conditions of business carefully- they will charge you a lot more than the one cent flights they seem to offer- charges just seem to pile up as you go along.If you are still interested their website is at www.ryanair.com.

Sandylan, If you don't even like'em but still fly several times a year, clearly they are providing serious value-added for ya :) Spirit in U.S. has begin to do the $9 each way fares lately, and hope more airlines will follow suit!

I use Ryanair frequently( 20+ flights per year). They have tied up most of my local routes.

They have a 100% safety record. This is unusual for a large airline ( They carried 42m passengers in the 12 months to Feb 07).

Prices start medium, then drop if there is high seat availability, then rocket if the flight fills.

Best prices are out of season, mid week, avoiding school holidays & bank holidays, and going against the traffic (say Girona - Blackpool on Friday night, Luton - Nimes on Sunday night).

In my experience, they deliver slightly more than they promise in their extensive terms and conditions : If you miss a flight, they have a flat rate on the next available flight. You can change destinations for the replacement flight, etc.

Best to see it as a bus service, but cheaper !

But when it goes wrong :

http://the-languedoc-page.com/phpBB2...opic.php?t=750

Peter

SHHH! Don't tell everyone about Ryanair and Easyjet. Let people carry on thinking that they're a bad idea - more cheap, easy flights for the rest of us... Seriously, I've used both airlines frequently - never feel the need to buy anything on the flight (even though I'm British), never get charged for extra baggage weight,am OK about flying into smaller airports like Beauvais - baggage reclaim is a breeze, and really, it's not that arduous or expensive a trip into Paris. I've booked flights Liverpool to Madrid for two weeks time - £230 for 3 of us return - booked way in advance. The same flight now would cost over £1000 for 3!

One thing I forgot to mention earlier about Priority Check-In is that you can pay for it online, but only if you have an EU passport. If you don't, you must go through the procedure of checking in first and then going over to the ticket purchasing counter to pay for Priority Check-In.

People who love Ryanair should want more people to know about them and use them. You want them to get more successful and add more planes and more routes.

All traveling Europeans already know about them. It's hardly a secret.

Ryanair are already about the 5th largest airline in Europe.

At their present rate of expansion they're closing the gap fast. BA beware ...

Steve

I wasn't being serious rkkwan...

if you want to see examples of "Reasons not to fly Ryanair" try the following website: http://www.ryanaircampaign.org/

There is an awful lot to dislike about Ryanair (my least favourite is the credit card surcharge per person per leg of the flight - so two people flying return pay 4x credit card surcharge), but I have flown with them several times, and will do so again.

If you know what to expect, book early, follow the rules exactly, and are not unlucky, then you will find them a very reasonable way to travel within Europe.

For those lauding their safety record please bear in mind the following:-

1) They haven't been around that long yet.

2) There are numerous reports of staff - including flight deck crew - drinking heavily prior to flights. I live in the closest town to Stansted airport where many of the staff lodge and can vouch for the unprofessional behaviour of many of their crew. My work colleague has made a report to the BBC Watchdog programme re staff drinking in local pubs - he often sees them coming in and boozing prior to flights.

Yes they are cheap, but I'd rather pay double and feel safe in the air.

or a serious injury, although, it's only been about a 20 year history.


I don't know I think 20 years is a pretty good track record IMHO

Drinking is not just a Ryanair problem, if it is one.
Consider this American Airlines case:
http://tinyurl.com/2umnda

Ryanair was a very small airline for most of those 20 years. Wasn't until 5-6 years ago before it adopted the current philosophy of operating, and it's still expanding quite quickly.

If you count the total number of flights it has flown in those 20 years, it may be only 3-4 times more than it'll fly in the next 12 months.

Rkkwan is correct. Ryanair has an interesting history, which you can read on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryanair. It must be doing something right, or it wouldn't have been such a runaway success over the last five or six years.

The most accidents occur on take off & landing.

Ryanair only do short European flights. They have shorter turn round times. Their planes do up to 8 flights per day, say 16 take off & landings.

So more risk, but no fatalities ?

Problem will be if they have fatalities ...... then you have reason to worry ?

Peter

All the more impressive then if Ryanair have more turnarounds per day. As a passenger you are only at risk with the flight you are taking - the others are immaterial.

I'e found very good luck and low prices with itnernal airflights by using kayak.com and cheapoair.com - surprisingly kayak even beats cheapo but cheapo sometimes has some airlines not listed on kayak. Ryanair is not sounding great to me, especially since I'm one who ususally ovepacks.

PS - sorry, I did mean internal European airflights.

Hi There,

I have purchased tickets through ryanair many times and it went great. I have flown with easyjet as well and would say that they are about the same, but easyjet is more expensive some times. Go for it. Ryanair is known for their below basement pricing, meaning, cheap!

check out my travel blogs at
www.nomadwannabe.com

Ciao

Theresa

No problems with Ryanair on the Rome to London leg or Glasgow to London. Take your own water and heed the baggage advice.