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Comment by ruiseal | Hacker News Reader

I've probably flown on 200 Ryanair flights and think the service is great. They get you from A to B cheap and mostly on time. If you adjust your expectations that they're a bus you'll have a better time. In response to your last paragraph. Their ability to set prices as they see fit has allowed them to offer mostly very cheap prices. Regulate this and say goodbye to those prices.

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I think what he means is the same issue I have. I also fly a lot in Europe and the only choice I have is Ryanair. I don't have a problem that Ryanair exists, rather having an issue, that they cut out every other carrier. I would be happy to pay a higher price for better service, reliability and the most: more space on the seat. The problem is not Ryanair directly, the problem is the lack of choice.

are there airports that only serve ryanair? or do you just fly unpopular routes that noone else thinks is worth serving?

Not the airport itself, but the route.

Ryanair often uses different model than traditional airlines. That is not hub and spoke, but instead same plane flying one city to next. Often with handful of hubs that are more connected. This means they also serve "unpopular" cities as part. Where the ground fees can be lot cheaper. And due to how cheap their pricing is there is what could be called organic demand. Just because you can fly to new place for cheap people will.

Yes.

Ryanair has been flying to regional airports near me for the last nearly 30 years.

But a different airport every few years.

What is happening is well documented by the local press who smell a story.

What Ryanair does is approach a small regional airport and offer to fly to it if the landing fees are low enough or even non-existent. And they often try and bundle sharing advertising etc.

Of course this is not great business for the airport. They feel they have to accept something, as it is better than nothing, but it’s not great.

Of course Ryanair doesn’t renew when the contracts are up etc - it has already lined up the next airport.

And the shared marketing? That’s often the banners you see at airports advertising other Ryanair destinations. And the Ryanair marketing budget is insider funny money but the airport contribution is real money …

I've never bought a bus ticket and then been told that the bus is overbooked and that I have to get off the bus.

Ryanair doesn’t overbook. That’s mainly an American thing. It does happen elsewhere, but it’s nowhere near as common.

Yes they do. It quite literally happened to me, which is why I wrote that comment.

I had to wait at the gate in the hopes there would be a no show. I wasn't the only one waiting, either. There were two of us. "Good news", they told us after everyone else had boarded. "We have seats for both of you."

They hand-wrote me a ticket and I walked onto the plane, only to find that the seat they'd assigned me was already taken. I stood in the aisle for about 10 minutes, clutching my bags, the only person still standing, until a flight attendant came and told me there wasn't actually a seat for me and that I needed to leave the plane.

When this has happened before, people assumed it was overbooking but it was actually a plane change.

I would have loved if they had an actual excuse for me, such as a plane change. All they could tell me was that I was late to check in, so they couldn't guarantee a seat for me on the flight.

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